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Substantial evidence from previous studies has suggested an association between major depressive disorder (MDD) and inflammation, and previous studies have associated prefrontal cortex (PFC) dysfunction with MDD. Systemic administration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide has been used to study inflammation-associated behavioral changes in rodents. However, proteomic studies investigating PFC protein expression in an LPS-induced mouse model of depression have yet to be conducted. Using two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of ?ight-tandem mass spectrometry, PFC proteomes were comparatively assessed in LPS-induced acute inflammation reaction mice, LPS-induced depressive-like behavior mice (Dep), and control mice. A total of 26 differentially expressed proteins were identified, two of which were selected for western blot analysis, the results of which revealed a significant increase in the expression levels of creatine kinase B and dihydropyrimidinase-like 3 in Dep mice, suggesting that changes in energy metabolism and neurogenesis occur in the PFC of Dep mice. Further investigation on these processes and on the proteins of the PFC are required in order to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanism underlying MDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression by inhibiting transcription or translation and are involved in diverse biological processes, including development, cellular differentiation and tumor generation. miRNA microarray technology is a high-throughput global analysis tool for miRNA expression profiling. Here, the hippocampi of four borna disease virus (BDV)-infected and four non-infected control neonatal rats were selected for miRNA microarray and bioinformatic analysis. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis was subsequently performed to validate the dysregulated miRNAs. Seven miRNAs (miR-145*, miR-146a*, miR-192*, miR-200b, miR-223*, miR-449a and miR-505), showed increased expression, whereas two miRNAs (miR-126 and miR-374) showed decreased expression in the BDV-infected group. By RT-qPCR validation, five miRNAs (miR-126, miR-200b, miR-374, miR-449a and miR-505) showed significantly decreased expression (P<0.05) in response to BDV infection. Biocarta pathway analysis predicted target genes associated with 'RNA', 'IGF1mTOR', 'EIF2', 'VEGF', 'EIF', 'NTHI', 'extrinsic', 'RB', 'IL1R' and 'IGF1' pathways. Gene Ontology analysis predicted target genes associated with 'peripheral nervous system development', 'regulation of small GTPase-mediated signal transduction', 'regulation of Ras protein signal transduction', 'aerobic respiration', 'membrane fusion', 'positive regulation of cell cycle', 'cellular respiration', 'heterocycle metabolic process', 'protein tetramerization' and 'regulation of Rho protein signal transduction' processes. Among the five dysregulated miRNAs identified by RT-qPCR, miR-126, miR-200b and miR-449a showed a strong association with nervous system development, cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]