Molecular Neuropathology Laboratory
Head of laboratory:
A/Prof. Matsumoto's group have focussed on the protein expression in alcoholic frontal cortex to understand the mechanism of alcohol-induced brain damage. They have identified 30 to 50 differentially expressed proteins in this region of both uncomplicated alcoholic and complicated cases (cases with liver cirrhosis). Compared with other drugs (neuroleptics and psychostimulant)-treated animal brain proteome and proteome of other brain regions, abnormalities in thiamine- and vitamin B6-dependent cascades, and glycolysis pathway in this brain region were determined to be region-, drug- and disease-specific. These data suggest abnormalities in cytosolic metabolic pathways which result compensatory shifts in energy metabolism may underlie the mechanism of alcohol-induced brain damage.
Another research focus of this laboratory is schizophrenia. A number of possible responsible brain regions have been investigated using proteomics approach and several important hypotheses are generated to explain the cause of this major mental illness. Using psychostimulant, animal model of schizophrenia was created. Approximately 30 interesting proteins were identified to be differentially regulated in this animal brain indicating they may be candidate proteins to explain the cause of psychosis.
