  The energy loss effect in nuclear matter is another nuclear effect apart from
the nuclear effects on the parton distribution as in deep inelastic scattering
process. The quark energy loss can be measured best by the nuclear dependence
of the high energy nuclear Drell-Yan process. By means of two typical kinds of
quark energy loss parametrization and the different sets of nuclear parton
distribution functions, we present a analysis of the E866 experiments on the
nuclear dependence of Drell-Yan lepton pair production resulting from the
bombardment of Be, Fe and W targets by 800GeV protons at Fermilab. It is found
that the quark energy loss in cold nuclei is strongly dependent on the used
nuclear parton distribution functions. The further prospects of using
relatively low energy proton incident on nuclear targets are presented by
combining the quark energy loss rate determined from a fit to the E866
nuclear-dependent ratios versus $x_1$, with the nuclear parton distribution
functions given from lA deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data. The experimental
study of the relatively low energy nuclear Drell-Yan process can give valuable
insight in the enengy loss of fast quark propagating a cold nuclei and help to
pin down nuclear parton distributions functions.
