Modulation of rat brain protein expression during acute and chronic finasteride administration

Introduction: Preliminary data suggest that S5AR inhibitors like finasteride (FlN) may elicit therapeutic effects in psychotic disorders and Tourette syndrome producing very limited side effects. Behavioral and neurochemical effects of FIN have been described in rat, but at the moment there are no proteomic data about effects of FIN administration on rat brain protein expression. In the present study we evaluated, by gel based and gel free methods, the impact of acute and chronic FIN treatment on global protein expression in specific rat brain areas. Methods: Samples were subjected to 2DE. Gels were analyzed using Progenesis SameSpot. Differentially expressed spots (Mann-Whitney p <0.05) were identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF. Samples were also analyzed using a shotgun approach (LC-MS). Proteins were classified using PANTHER and STRING for generation of biological networks Results: lmage analysis highlighted several significantly up- and down regulated proteins in acute and chronic group with respect to controls. Shotgun data from nucleus accumbens also showed nine proteins unique to chronic group and 22 proteins unique to acute group. Classification of proteins and generation of biological networks are in progress Conclusion: Present study provides the first evidence for protein variations in rat brain proteome following FIN treatment. Results indicated several possible candidate proteins modulated by FIN treatment. Further proteomic and bioinformatics investigations will be necessary to evaluate their role as possible molecular targets of drug.