Protein biomarkers of susceptibility and resilience to stress in a rat model of depression

The molecular etiologies of psychological stress and major depressive disorder (MDD) are highly complex and many brain regions are involved. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has gained attention in depression research due to its role in cognition including working memory and decision-making, which are impaired in MDD. The aim of the present study was to identify differentially regulated synaptosomal proteins from PFC in stress-exposed animals. The well-established chronic mild stress (CMS) rodent model was applied and three groups of rats were studied: unstressed controls, stress-susceptible and stress resilient. Large-scale proteomics based on relative iTRAQ quantification was applied on three synaptosomal Percoll gradient fractions and 27 proteins were found to undergo significant differential regulation. Gradient fraction two (F2) contained the highest amounts of synaptosomal proteins and is therefore recommended to be included in proteomic studies onwards, in addition to the traditionally used fractions F3 and F4. The regulated proteins corroborate previous studies on depression regulated proteins; including GFAP, HOMER1 and glutamatergic transmission (vesicular transporter 1, VGLUT1). However, additional functionalities were represented – especially in stress-resilient rats – such as oxidative stress protection (peroxiredoxins PRDX1 and PRDX2), Na/K-transporter ATP1A2 and respiratory chain subunits (UQCRC1 and UQCRFS1), which illustrate the biochemical complexity behind the stress phenotypes, but may also aid in the development of novel treatment strategies. [Display omitted] •The Chronic Mild Stress model was used to model a depressive-like condition.•The prefrontal cortex was the region of interest.•A synaptosome fractioning protocol was used to enrich for synaptic proteins.•iTRAQ-coupled LC/MS-MS was used to identify regulated proteins.•Several protein biomarkers were discovered.