Publications by authors named "Joao V Borba"

Glyphosate, a pesticide commonly found in aquatic ecosystems, affects this habitat and nontarget organisms such as fish. The increase in water temperature, linked to factors such as climate change, poses a considerable threat. Despite extensive ecotoxicological research, we still do not know the real individual and specific consequences of continued exposure to glyphosate and high temperatures, simulating a scenario where the aquatic environment remains contaminated and temperatures continue to rise.

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Anxiety is an emotion that represents a crucial anticipatory reaction of aversive stimuli, with clinical relevance in cases of disproportional and severe occurrences. Although distinct animal models have contributed to elucidate anxiety-related mechanisms, the influence of anxiogenic and anxiolytic modulations on both locomotion and exploration-related parameters in the open field test (OFT) is not fully elucidated. Here, we aimed to assess the influence of anxiogenic and anxiolytic manipulations on the exploratory dynamics of adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) focusing on homebase-related behaviors.

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The reproducibility crisis in bioscience, characterized by inconsistent study results, impedes our understanding of biological processes and global collaborative studies offer a unique solution. This study is the first global collaboration using the zebrafish () novel tank test, a behavioral assay for anxiety-like responses. We analyzed data from 20 laboratories worldwide, focusing on housing conditions and experimental setups.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Dopamine (DA) is a key neurotransmitter linked to brain function, and its signaling changes are associated with neuropsychiatric disorders like bipolar disorder (BD), which involves mood swings between mania and depression.
  • - The drug GBR 12909 is used in research to inhibit DA reuptake, creating experimental conditions that model BD-like behaviors, especially in zebrafish, which are recognized as valuable for studying neurobehavioral changes.
  • - The study evaluates GBR 12909's effectiveness in mimicking BD symptoms in zebrafish, emphasizing the role of dopamine transporters and discussing the benefits and challenges of using zebrafish for broader BD research.
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Article Synopsis
  • * In an experiment, male and female zebrafish from two different phenotypes were exposed to EtOH for seven days, after which their exploratory behavior was assessed using the open field test (OFT).
  • * Results revealed that zebrafish exhibited population and sex-dependent differences in sensitivity to EtOH, with leopard phenotypes showing more anxiety and short-fin females being particularly sensitive, highlighting zebrafish as useful models for studying the neurobehavioral effects of alcohol.
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Anxiety can be a protective emotion when animals face aversive conditions, but is commonly associated with various neuropsychiatric disorders when pathologically exacerbated. Drug repurposing has emerged as a valuable strategy based on utilizing the existing pharmaceuticals for new therapeutic purposes. Ketamine, traditionally used as an anesthetic, acts as a non-competitive antagonist of the glutamate N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, and shows potential anxiolytic and antidepressant effects at subanesthetic doses.

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  • Environmental contamination from pharmaceuticals like atenolol negatively affects non-target organisms, specifically adult zebrafish, which were exposed to varying concentrations for seven days.
  • The fish exhibited anxiety-like behaviors (e.g., increased bottom-dwelling and decreased vertical exploration) and showed heightened aggression without changing their social preferences.
  • Biochemical analyses revealed that atenolol disrupted antioxidant enzyme activities, caused oxidative stress, altered specific mRNA expressions (increased tph1 and decreased bdnf), and affected energy metabolism, which could threaten the fish's health and survival in their environment.
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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and debilitating illness that has been considered a polygenic and multifactorial disorder, challenging effective therapeutic interventions. Although invaluable advances have been obtained from human and rodent studies, several molecular and mechanistic aspects of OCD etiology are still obscure. Thus, the use of non-traditional animal models may foster innovative approaches in this field, aiming to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of disease from an evolutionary perspective.

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Functional changes in dopamine transporter (DAT) are related to various psychiatric conditions, including bipolar disorder (BD) symptoms. In experimental research, the inhibition of DAT induces behavioral alterations that recapitulate symptoms found in BD patients, including mania and depressive mood. Thus, developing novel animal models that mimic BD-related conditions by pharmacologically modulating the dopaminergic signaling is relevant.

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Article Synopsis
  • Anxiety serves as a protective mechanism in animals, and the open field test (OFT) measures how they explore unfamiliar environments while forming homebases and recognizing cues.
  • Two zebrafish populations, short fin (SF) and leopard (LEO), were tested for anxiety levels using various behavioral tests before being observed in the OFT over multiple sessions.
  • Results indicated that LEO exhibited higher anxiety-like behaviors compared to SF, with unique patterns in exploration and homebase formation that varied between trials, ultimately highlighting differences in anxiety-related responses between the two populations.
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While pain results from the activation of nociceptors following noxious stimuli, mounting evidence links pain- and stress-related responses in mammals. In zebrafish, the activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis may also regulate body pigmentation (the camouflage response). Here, we aimed to investigate a putative relationship between pain-, stress-, and camouflage-related parameters in adult zebrafish.

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Stress is a physiological reaction that allows the organisms to cope with challenging situations daily. Thus, elucidating the behavioral outcomes following different stressors is of great importance in translational research. Here, we aimed to characterize the main factors which explain similarities and differences of two stress protocols on zebrafish exploratory activity.

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The open field is a suitable task to analyze the sequential organization of exploratory activity and the homebase formation represents an important feature of environmental recognition. Although the zebrafish can define homebase locations, there are no data reporting how stressful conditions modulate complex behaviors of this aquatic species in the open field so far. Here, we aimed to characterize the spatio-temporal exploratory activity of adult zebrafish in the open field test, as well as to verify the responsiveness of homebase-related parameters to acute stress (AS) and unpredictable chronic stress (UCS) protocols.

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Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a contaminant of global concern owing to its prevalent occurrence in aquatic and terrestrial environments with potential hazardous impact on living organisms. Here, we investigated the influence of realistic environmental concentrations of PFOA (0, 0.25, 0.

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Social behaviors are key components that play adaptive roles in various species, including humans. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a social species and the shoaling behavior can be pharmacologically manipulated either by anxiogenic or anxiolytic substances, providing translatable data in neuropsychiatric research. Here, we aimed to characterize the shoaling behavior in zebrafish under different pharmacological manipulations in a three-dimensional (3D) perspective using the spatial coordinates of the fish positions.

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