PUBLICATION

Modeling psychiatric comorbid symptoms of epileptic seizures in zebrafish

Authors
Canzian, J., Müller, T.E., Franscescon, F., Michelotti, P., Fontana, B.D., Costa, F.V., Rosemberg, D.B.
ID
ZDB-PUB-190923-2
Date
2019
Source
Journal of psychiatric research   119: 14-22 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Keywords
Anxiety, Epilepsy-related comorbidities, Exploratory activity, Memory deficits, Social behavior, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Anxiety/chemically induced
  • Anxiety/physiopathology*
  • Behavior, Animal/drug effects
  • Behavior, Animal/physiology*
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Female
  • GABA Antagonists/pharmacology
  • Humans
  • Locomotion/drug effects
  • Locomotion/physiology*
  • Male
  • Memory Disorders/chemically induced
  • Memory Disorders/physiopathology*
  • Pentylenetetrazole/pharmacology
  • Retention, Psychology/drug effects
  • Retention, Psychology/physiology
  • Seizures/chemically induced
  • Seizures/complications
  • Seizures/physiopathology*
  • Social Behavior*
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
31542703 Full text @ J Psychiatr Res
Abstract
Epilepsy is a debilitating neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. Anxiety, cognitive deficits, depressive-like symptoms, and social dysfunction are psychiatric comorbidities with high prevalence in epileptic patients. Due to the genetic and behavioral tractability, the zebrafish is a promising model organism to understand the neural bases involved in epilepsy-related comorbidities. Here, we aimed to characterize some behavioral phenotypes paralleling those observed in epilepsy-related comorbidities after a single pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) exposure in zebrafish. We also analyzed the influence of whole-body cortisol levels in the behavioral responses measured. Fish were exposed to 10 mM PTZ for 20 min to induce epileptic seizures. After 24 h recovery period, locomotion and anxiety-like responses (novel tank and light-dark tests), social interaction (shoaling behavior task), and memory retention (inhibitory avoidance protocol) were assessed. Basically, PTZ impaired habituation to novelty stress, evoked anxiogenic-like behaviors, disrupted shoaling, and caused memory consolidation deficits in zebrafish without changing whole-body cortisol levels. In conclusion, our novel findings further validate the use of zebrafish as a suitable tool for modeling epilepsy-related comorbidities in translational neuropsychiatric research.
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Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
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Mapping