PUBLICATION

Zebrafish, an In Vivo Platform to Screen Drugs and Proteins for Biomedical Use

Authors
Lee, H.C., Lin, C.Y., Tsai, H.J.
ID
ZDB-PUB-210603-41
Date
2021
Source
Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland)   14(6): (Review)
Registered Authors
Lee, Hung-Chieh, Lin, Cheng-Yung, Tsai, Huai-Jen
Keywords
drug screening, high-throughput screening, pharmacodynamic, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
none
PubMed
34073947 Full text @ Pharmaceuticals (Basel)
Abstract
The nearly simultaneous convergence of human genetics and advanced molecular technologies has led to an improved understanding of human diseases. At the same time, the demand for drug screening and gene function identification has also increased, albeit time- and labor-intensive. However, bridging the gap between in vitro evidence from cell lines and in vivo evidence, the lower vertebrate zebrafish possesses many advantages over higher vertebrates, such as low maintenance, high fecundity, light-induced spawning, transparent embryos, short generation interval, rapid embryonic development, fully sequenced genome, and some phenotypes similar to human diseases. Such merits have popularized the zebrafish as a model system for biomedical and pharmaceutical studies, including drug screening. Here, we reviewed the various ways in which zebrafish serve as an in vivo platform to perform drug and protein screening in the fields of rare human diseases, social behavior and cancer studies. Since zebrafish mutations faithfully phenocopy many human disorders, many compounds identified from zebrafish screening systems have advanced to early clinical trials, such as those for Adenoid cystic carcinoma, Dravet syndrome and Diamond-Blackfan anemia. We also reviewed and described how zebrafish are used to carry out environmental pollutant detection and assessment of nanoparticle biosafety and QT prolongation.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping