Systems-Scale Analysis Reveals Pathways Involved in Cellular Response to Methamphetamine

Authors

Lijie Sun, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hong-Mei Li, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Manfredo J. Seufferheld, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Kent R. Walters Jr., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Venu M. Margam, Purdue University
Amber Jannasch, Purdue University
Naomi Diaz, Purdue University
Catherine P. Riley, Purdue University
Weilin Sun, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Yueh-Feng Li, Purdue University
William M. Muir, Purdue UniversityFollow
Jun Xie, Purdue University
Jing Wu, Carnegie Mellon University
Fan Zhang, Indiana University
Jake Y. Chen, Indiana University
Eric L. Barker, Purdue University
Jiri Adamec, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Barry R. Pittendrigh, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2011

Citation

Sun L, Li H-M, Seufferheld MJ, Walters KR Jr., Margam VM, et al. (2011) Systems-Scale Analysis Reveals Pathways Involved in Cellular Response to Methamphetamine. PLoS ONE 6(4): e18215. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018215

Comments

Copyright 2011 Sun et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Abstract

Background: Methamphetamine (METH), an abused illicit drug, disrupts many cellular processes, including energy metabolism, spermatogenesis, and maintenance of oxidative status. However, many components of the molecular underpinnings of METH toxicity have yet to be established. Network analyses of integrated proteomic, transcriptomic and metabolomic data are particularly well suited for identifying cellular responses to toxins, such as METH, which might otherwise be obscured by the numerous and dynamic changes that are induced.

Methodology/Results: We used network analyses of proteomic and transcriptomic data to evaluate pathways in Drosophila melanogaster that are affected by acute METH toxicity. METH exposure caused changes in the expression of genes involved with energy metabolism, suggesting a Warburg-like effect (aerobic glycolysis), which is normally associated with cancerous cells. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that carbohydrate metabolism plays an important role in METH toxicity. In agreement with our hypothesis, we observed that increased dietary sugars partially alleviated the toxic effects of METH. Our systems analysis also showed that METH impacted genes and proteins known to be associated with muscular homeostasis/ contraction, maintenance of oxidative status, oxidative phosphorylation, spermatogenesis, iron and calcium homeostasis. Our results also provide numerous candidate genes for the METH-induced dysfunction of spermatogenesis, which have not been previously characterized at the molecular level.

Conclusion: Our results support our overall hypothesis that METH causes a toxic syndrome that is characterized by the altered carbohydrate metabolism, dysregulation of calcium and iron homeostasis, increased oxidative stress, and disruption of mitochondrial functions.