PUBLICATION

Phenylthiourea alters toxicity of mercury compounds in zebrafish larvae

Authors
MacDonald, T.C., Nehzati, S., Sylvain, N.J., James, A.K., Korbas, M., Caine, S., Pickering, I.J., George, G.N., Krone, P.H.
ID
ZDB-PUB-150801-7
Date
2015
Source
Journal of inorganic biochemistry   151: 10-17 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Krone, Patrick H.
Keywords
Density functional theory, Mercury, Metal ion toxicology, Methylmercury, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence imaging, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Coordination Complexes/chemistry
  • Enzyme Activation/drug effects
  • Mercury Compounds/chemistry
  • Mercury Compounds/toxicity*
  • Phenylthiourea/chemistry
  • Phenylthiourea/pharmacology*
  • Quantum Theory
  • Toxicological Phenomena/drug effects*
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
26226450 Full text @ J. Inorg. Biochem.
Abstract
In recent years larval stage zebrafish have been emerging as a standard vertebrate model in a number of fields, ranging from developmental biology to pharmacology and toxicology. The tyrosinase inhibitor 1-phenyl-2-thiourea (PTU) is used very widely with larval zebrafish to generate essentially transparent organisms through inhibition of melanogenesis, which has enabled many elegant studies in areas ranging from neurological development to cancer research. Here we show that PTU can have dramatic synergistic and antagonistic effects on the chemical toxicology of different mercury compounds. Our results indicate that extreme caution should be used when employing PTU in toxicological studies, particularly when studying toxic metal ions.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping