利用斑马鱼视觉行为进行视网膜变性药物筛选

Ganzen Logan, Venkatraman Prahatha, Pang Chi Pui, Leung Yuk Fai, Zhang Mingzhi

Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, 915 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.

Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Jun 2;18(6):1185. doi: 10.3390/ijms18061185.

Zebrafish are a popular vertebrate model in drug discovery. They produce a large number of small and rapidly-developing embryos. These embryos display rich visual-behaviors that can be used to screen drugs for treating retinal degeneration (RD). RD comprises blinding diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa, which affects 1 in 4000 people. This disease has no definitive cure, emphasizing an urgency to identify new drugs. In this review, we will discuss advantages, challenges, and research developments in using zebrafish behaviors to screen drugs in vivo. We will specifically discuss a visual-motor response that can potentially expedite discovery of new RD drugs.

斑马鱼是药物研发中一种常用的脊椎动物模型。它们能产生大量小型且发育迅速的胚胎。这些胚胎表现出丰富的视觉行为，可用于筛选治疗视网膜变性（RD）的药物。RD包括诸如色素性视网膜炎等致盲疾病，每4000人中就有1人受其影响。这种疾病尚无确切的治愈方法，这凸显了寻找新药的紧迫性。在这篇综述中，我们将讨论利用斑马鱼行为在体内筛选药物的优势、挑战和研究进展。我们将特别讨论一种视觉运动反应，它有可能加速新型RD药物的发现。