PUBLICATION

Zebrafish as a systems toxicology model for developmental neurotoxicity testing

Authors
Nishimura, Y., Murakami, S., Ashikawa, Y., Sasagawa, S., Umemoto, N., Shimada, Y., Tanaka, T.
ID
ZDB-PUB-140812-5
Date
2015
Source
Congenital anomalies   55(1): 1-16 (Review)
Registered Authors
Tanaka, Toshio
Keywords
ADME, autism, developmental neurotoxicity, systems toxicology, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Central Nervous System/drug effects*
  • Central Nervous System/embryology
  • Central Nervous System/growth & development
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Humans
  • Neurogenesis/drug effects
  • Neurotoxicity Syndromes/prevention & control
  • Zebrafish
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
PubMed
25109898 Full text @ Congenit. Anom. (Kyoto)
Abstract
The developing brain is extremely sensitive to many chemicals. Exposure to neurotoxicants during development has been implicated in various neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Although rodents have been widely used for developmental neurotoxicity testing, experiments using large numbers of rodents are time-consuming, expensive, and raise ethical concerns. Using alternative non-mammalian animal models may relieve some of these pressures by allowing testing of large numbers of subjects while reducing expenses and minimizing the use of mammalian subjects. In this review, we discuss some of the advantages of using zebrafish in developmental neurotoxicity testing, focusing on central nervous system development, neurobehavior, toxicokinetics, and toxicodynamics in this species. We also describe some important examples of developmental neurotoxicity testing using zebrafish combined with gene expression profiling, neuroimaging, or neurobehavioral assessment. Zebrafish may be a systems toxicology model that has the potential to reveal the pathways of developmental neurotoxicity and to provide a sound basis for human risk assessments.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping