Pharmacopsychiatry 2009; 42 - A187
DOI: 10.1055/s-0029-1240259

Comparative proteomic analysis with human post mortem brain tissues of drug addicts versus controls: possible impact of beta-tubulin on drug abusing behaviour

P Zill 1, V Vielsmeier 1, A Büttner 2, W Eisenmenger 2, B Bondy 1, HJ Möller 1
  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Section of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
  • 2Institute for Legal Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany

There is no doubt that neurobiological alterations in the brain contribute to the development of addiction. Applying high-throughput proteomic techniques it is now possible to evaluate changes across the entire proteome in defined brain regions. We performed comparative proteomic analysis in post mortem brain tissues of the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, pituitary and cerebellum from 11 opiate addicted individuals and 10 persons who died suddenly from diseases not directly involving the CNS. Significant results were validated by Western blot in additional independent post mortem samples from 12 drug abusers compared to 12 controls and 12 suicide victims. Applying 2D-electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF analysis we detected alterations of the beta-tubulin expression in the brains of drug abusers with a significant higher expression of beta-tubulin in the amygdala as a main result. This finding could furthermore be replicated by Western blot analysis in the additional sample (oneway Anova: F=5.062, p=0.013). Our results suggest a probable role of beta-tubulin, a major component of the microtubules in the pathophysiology of addiction, especially in the amygdala. The interpretation that cytoskeletal changes in the microtubular network of the amygdala, the main region of emotional learning might contribute to the development of drug abusing behaviour is still speculative, but might be a possible new pathway that may increase our understanding of drug addiction.