Proteomic analysis of protein composition of rat forebrain cortex exposed to morphine for 10days; comparison with animals exposed to morphine and subsequently nurtured for 20days in the absence of this drug.

UNLABELLED: Proteomic analysis was performed in post-nuclear supernatant fraction (PNS) prepared from forebrain cortex of rats exposed to increasing doses of morphine (10-50mg/kg) for 10days and sacrificed 24h (group +M10) or 20days (group +M10/-M20) after the last dose of morphine. PNS fraction was resolved by 2D-ELFO and stained by CBB. Analysis of the difference between (+M10) and (-M10) samples of PNS by PDQuest accompanied by MALDI-TOF MS/MS indicated the significant change of 28 proteins. Importantly, the number of altered proteins was decreased to 14 after 20days of nurturing animals in the absence of morphine. This new and important finding indicating the ability of mammalian organism to return to physiological norm after removal of the drug was verified by an independent methodology - gel-free & label-free quantification and normalization procedure denominated as MaxLFQ. The 113 proteins were identified as altered by morphine in (+M10) samples when compared with (-M10) samples of PNS and this number was decreased to 19 after 20days of nurturing the animals in the absence of this drug. BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Forebrain cortex of rats exposed to morphine for 10days is severely altered as far as the overall protein composition is involved. Depending on the method used for protein detection and quantification, 28 (MALDI-TOF MS/MS) or 113 (MaxLFQ) altered proteins were identified. Importantly, in rats sacrificed 20days after the last dose of morphine, the number of altered proteins was decreased to 14 (MALDI-TOF MS/MS) and 19 (MaxLFQ), respectively. Our data indicate the high ability of living organism to oppose the drastic, morphine-induced change of the target tissue protein composition with the aim to return to the physiological norm after complete removal of the drug.