ResearchBib Share Your Research, Maximize Your Social Impacts
Sign for Notice Everyday Sign up >> Login

Chronic Methamphetamine Increases Alpha-Synuclein Protein Levels in the Striatum and Hippocampus but not in the Cortex of Juvenile Mice

Journal: Journal of Addiction & Prevention (Vol.2, No. 2)

Publication Date:

Authors : ; ; ; ; ; ;

Page : 01-06

Keywords : Methamphetamine; Parkinson’s disease; Aging; Alphasynuclein; Synaptic transmission;

Source : Downloadexternal Find it from : Google Scholarexternal

Abstract

Methamphetamine is the second most widely used illicit drug worldwide. More than 290 tons of methamphetamine was synthesized in the year 2005 alone, corresponding to approximately ~3 billion 100 mg doses of methamphetamine. Drug addicts abuse high concentrations of methamphetamine for months and even years. Current reports in the literature are consistent with the interpretation that methamphetamine-induced neuronal injury may render methamphetamine users more susceptible to neurodegenerative pathologies. Specifically, chronic exposure to psychostimulants is associated with increases in striatal alpha-synuclein expression, a synaptic protein implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. This raises the question whether methamphetamine exposure affects alpha-synuclein levels in the brain. In this short report, we examined alpha-synuclein protein and mRNA levels in the striatum, hippocampus and cortex of adolescent male mice following a neurotoxic regimen of methamphetamine (24mg/kg/daily/14days). We found that methamphetamine exposure resulted in a decrease in the monomeric form of alpha-synuclein (molecular species 19 kDa) in the striatum and hippocampus, but not in the cortex. Despite the elevation of high molecular weight alpha-synuclein species (>19 kDa), there was no change in the alpha-synuclein mRNA levels in the striatum, hippocampus and cortex of mice exposed to methamphetamine. The methamphetamine-induced increase in high molecular weight alpha-synuclein protein levels might be one of the causal mechanisms or one of the compensatory consequences of methamphetamine-mediated neurotoxicity.

Last modified: 2015-12-05 15:21:54