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The Effects of Drugs on Zebrafish Behavior
Author(s) -
Blunt LaChelle Antonece
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.6.lb10-e
Subject(s) - strychnine , zebrafish , disinhibition , inhibitory postsynaptic potential , glycine receptor , neuroscience , diazinon , neurotransmission , biology , excitatory postsynaptic potential , receptor , pharmacology , glycine , biochemistry , gene , amino acid , pesticide , agronomy
Zebrafish are studied in many laboratories as a model organism of vertebrate development because they are small and easy to manipulate. The zebrafish’s neural system contains small numbers of cells, while a human contains hundreds or thousands of motor neurons. However, although the number of neurons is relatively small, the zebrafish brain controls the body the same way as the human brain. In the central nervous system, there are two different receptors: the inhibitory receptor and the excitatory receptor. The inhibitory receptor is triggered by glycine , whereas glutamate acts on the excitatory receptor. The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of drugs on zebrafish behavior. Strychnine and diazinon were used. Strychnine is a glycinergic antagonist that binds to the inhibitory receptor causing “hyperexcitability” or over transmission of neural signaling. Diazinon inhibits acetylcholinesterase. Zebrafish were treated with these drugs early in neural development. An assay was developed to test for disinhibition. Preliminary results suggest that the diazinon treated groups showed more signs of disinhibition than the strychnine treated animals. Many of the strychnine treated groups displayed “hyper‐reactivity” to the startle stimuli. It is possible that these procedures might lead to a model of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) in zebrafish as it relates to humans.