Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, UK.
J Neurosci Methods. 2022 Nov 1;381:109706. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2022.109706. Epub 2022 Sep 8.
Zebrafish are used in anxiety research as the species' naturalistic diving response to a new environment is a reliable and validated marker for anxiety-like behavior. One of the benefits of using zebrafish is the potential for high throughput drug screens in fish at the larval stage. However, at present, tests of anxiety in larvae and adults often measure different endpoints.
Here, for the first time, we have adapted the novel tank diving response test for examining diving behavior in zebrafish larvae to assess anxiety-like behaviors at very early-stages (7 days-post-fertilization [dpf]).
Current methods to examine anxiety in larvae can show low reliability, and measure different endpoints as in adults, thus calling into question their translational relevance.
We found that 7dpf zebrafish spent more time at the bottom of a small novel tank. We validated this as anxiety-like behaviors with diazepam reducing, and caffeine increasing the time spent in the bottom of the novel environment.
This new automated and high-throughput screening tool has the potential use for screening of anxiogenic and anxiolytic compounds, and for studies aiming to better understand anxiety-like behaviors.
斑马鱼被用于焦虑研究，因为该物种对新环境的自然潜水反应是焦虑样行为的可靠和验证的标志物。使用斑马鱼的一个好处是，在幼虫阶段对鱼类进行高通量药物筛选的潜力。然而，目前，幼虫和成年鱼的焦虑测试通常测量不同的终点。
在这里，我们首次将新颖的水箱潜水反应测试适应于检查斑马鱼幼虫的潜水行为，以评估非常早期（受精后 7 天[7dpf]）的焦虑样行为。
目前检查幼虫焦虑的方法可靠性较低，并且与成年鱼的测量终点不同，因此质疑其转化相关性。
我们发现 7dpf 斑马鱼在小的新水箱底部停留的时间更长。我们用安定使时间减少，咖啡因使时间增加来验证这是一种焦虑样行为。
这种新的自动化和高通量筛选工具具有筛选焦虑药物和抗焦虑药物的潜在用途，也可用于更好地研究焦虑样行为。
