Serum Proteomic Analysis of Cannabis Use Disorder in Male Patients

Cannabis use has been growing recently and it is legally consumed in many countries. Cannabis has a variety of phytochemicals including cannabinoids, which might impair the peripheral systems responses affecting inflammatory and immunological pathways. However, the exact signaling pathways that induce these effects need further understanding. The objective of this study is to investigate the serum proteomic profiling in patients diagnosed with cannabis use disorder (CUD) as compared with healthy control subjects. The novelty of our study is to highlight the differentially changes proteins in the serum of CUD patients. Certain proteins can be targeted in the future to attenuate the toxicological effects of cannabis. Blood samples were collected from 20 male individuals: 10 healthy controls and 10 CUD patients. An untargeted proteomic technique employing two-dimensional difference in gel electrophoresis coupled with mass spectrometry was employed in this study to assess the differentially expressed proteins. The proteomic analysis identified a total of 121 proteins that showed significant changes in protein expression between CUD patients (experimental group) and healthy individuals (control group). For instance, the serum expression of inactive tyrosine protein kinase PEAK1 and tumor necrosis factor alpha-induced protein 3 were increased in CUD group. In contrast, the serum expression of transthyretin and serotransferrin were reduced in CUD group. Among these proteins, 55 proteins were significantly upregulated and 66 proteins significantly downregulated in CUD patients as compared with healthy control group. Ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) found that these differentially expressed proteins are linked to p38MAPK, interleukin 12 complex, nuclear factor-κB, and other signaling pathways. Our work indicates that the differentially expressed serum proteins between CUD and control groups are correlated to liver X receptor/retinoid X receptor (RXR), farnesoid X receptor/RXR activation, and acute phase response signaling.