CLN3 deficiency leads to neurological and metabolic perturbations during early development.

Juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (or Batten disease) is an autosomal recessive, rare neurodegenerative disorder that affects mainly children above the age of 5 yr and is most commonly caused by mutations in the highly conserved gene. Here, we generated morphants and stable mutant lines in zebrafish. Although neither morphant nor mutant larvae showed any obvious developmental or morphological defects, behavioral phenotyping of the mutant larvae revealed hyposensitivity to abrupt light changes and hypersensitivity to pro-convulsive drugs.

Seizure-induced increase in microglial cell population in the developing zebrafish brain.

Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder characterized by unprovoked and recurrent seizures, of which 60% are of unknown etiology. Recent studies implicate microglia in the pathophysiology of epilepsy. However, their role in this process, in particular following early-life seizures, remains poorly understood due in part to the lack of suitable experimental models allowing the in vivo imaging of microglial activity.

Evaluation of the wound healing properties of South African medicinal plants using zebrafish and in vitro bioassays.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: In South Africa, medicinal plants have a history of traditional use, with many species used for treating wounds. The scientific basis of such uses remains largely unexplored.

Aim Of The Study: To screen South African plants used ethnomedicinally for wound healing based on their pro-angiogenic and wound healing activity, using transgenic zebrafish larvae and cell culture assays.

Anti-seizure activity of African medicinal plants: The identification of bioactive alkaloids from the stem bark of Rauvolfia caffra using an in vivo zebrafish model.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Epilepsy is one of the major chronic diseases that does not have a cure to date. Adverse drug reactions have been reported from the use of available anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) which are also effective in only two-thirds of the patients. Accordingly, the identification of scaffolds with promising anti-seizure activity remains an important first step towards the development of new anti-epileptic therapies, with improved efficacy and reduced adverse effects.

l-Isoaspartyl Methyltransferase Deficiency in Zebrafish Leads to Impaired Calcium Signaling in the Brain.

Isomerization of l-aspartyl and l-asparaginyl residues to l-isoaspartyl residues is one type of protein damage that can occur under physiological conditions and leads to conformational changes, loss of function, and enhanced protein degradation. Protein l-isoaspartyl methyltransferase (PCMT) is a repair enzyme whose action initiates the reconversion of abnormal l-isoaspartyl residues to normal l-aspartyl residues in proteins. Many lines of evidence support a crucial role for PCMT in the brain, but the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood.

Phenotypic assays in yeast and zebrafish reveal drugs that rescue deficiency.

Mutations in () are causally linked to the rare neurodegenerative disorders Kufor-Rakeb syndrome, hereditary spastic paraplegia and neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. This suggests that ATP13A2, a lysosomal cation-transporting ATPase, plays a crucial role in neuronal cells. The heterogeneity of the clinical spectrum of -associated disorders is not yet well understood and currently, these diseases remain without effective treatment.

New insights into the early mechanisms of epileptogenesis in a zebrafish model of Dravet syndrome.

Objective: To pinpoint the earliest cellular defects underlying seizure onset (epileptogenic period) during perinatal brain development in a new zebrafish model of Dravet syndrome (DS) and to investigate potential disease-modifying activity of the 5HT receptor agonist fenfluramine.

Methods: We used CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis to introduce a missense mutation, designed to perturb ion transport function in all channel isoforms, into scn1lab, the zebrafish orthologue of SCN1A (encoding voltage-gated sodium channel alpha subunit 1). We performed behavioral analysis and electroencephalographic recordings to measure convulsions and epileptiform discharges, followed by single-cell RNA-Seq, morphometric analysis of transgenic reporter-labeled γ-aminobutyric acidergic (GABAergic) neurons, and pharmacological profiling of mutant larvae.

Transcriptome profiling data reveals ubiquitin-specific peptidase 9 knockdown effects.

Ubiquitin specific peptidase 9 (USP9) is a deubiquitinase encoded by a sex-linked gene with a Y-chromosomal form () and an X-chromosomal form () that escapes X-inactivation. Since is a key regulatory gene with sex-linked expression in the human brain, the gene may be of interest for researchers studying molecular gender differences and ubiquitin signaling in the brain. To assess the downstream effects of knocking down and on a transcriptome-wide scale, we have conducted microarray profiling experiments using the human DU145 prostate cancer cell culture model, after confirming the robust expression of both and in this model.

Deep learning image recognition enables efficient genome editing in zebrafish by automated injections.

One of the most popular techniques in zebrafish research is microinjection. This is a rapid and efficient way to genetically manipulate early developing embryos, and to introduce microbes, chemical compounds, nanoparticles or tracers at larval stages. Here we demonstrate the development of a machine learning software that allows for microinjection at a trained target site in zebrafish eggs at unprecedented speed.

Anti-Inflammatory Activity and Cheminformatics Analysis of New Poten t 2-Substituted 1-Methyl-5-Nitroindazolinones.

After the identification of the anti-inflammatory properties of VA5-13l (2-benzyl-1- methyl-5-nitroindazolinone) in previous investigations, some of its analogous compounds were designed, synthesized and evaluated in two anti-inflammatory methods: LPS-enhanced leukocyte migration assay in zebrafish; and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced mouse ear edema. The products evaluated (3, 6, 8, 9 and 10) showed the lower values of relative leukocyte migration at 30 µM (0.14, 0.

Gender-Specific Expression of Ubiquitin-Specific Peptidase 9 Modulates Tau Expression and Phosphorylation: Possible Implications for Tauopathies.

Public transcriptomic studies have shown that several genes display pronounced gender differences in their expression in the human brain, which may influence the manifestations and risk for neuronal disorders. Here, we apply a transcriptome-wide analysis to discover genes with gender-specific expression and significant alterations in public postmortem brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients compared to controls. We identify the sex-linked ubiquitin-specific peptidase 9 (USP9) as an outstanding candidate gene with highly significant expression differences between the genders and male-specific underexpression in AD.

Potential of zebrafish as a model for exploring the role of the amygdala in emotional memory and motivational behavior.

Emotion is a key aspect of behavior, enabling humans and animals to assign either positive or negative values to sensory inputs and thereby to make appropriate decisions. Classical experiments in mammalian models, mainly in primates and rodents, have shown that the amygdala is essential for appetitive and aversive associative processing and that dysfunction of this brain region leads to various psychiatric conditions, including depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, autism, and posttraumatic stress disorder. In the past 2 decades, the zebrafish (Danio rerio; Cyprinidae) has emerged as a versatile, reliable vertebrate model organism for the in vivo study of development, gene function, and numerous aspects of human pathologies.

CHD2 variants are a risk factor for photosensitivity in epilepsy.

Photosensitivity is a heritable abnormal cortical response to flickering light, manifesting as particular electroencephalographic changes, with or without seizures. Photosensitivity is prominent in a very rare epileptic encephalopathy due to de novo CHD2 mutations, but is also seen in epileptic encephalopathies due to other gene mutations. We determined whether CHD2 variation underlies photosensitivity in common epilepsies, specific photosensitive epilepsies and individuals with photosensitivity without seizures.

2-Octadecynoic acid as a dual life stage inhibitor of Plasmodium infections and plasmodial FAS-II enzymes.

The malaria parasite Plasmodium goes through two life stages in the human host, a non-symptomatic liver stage (LS) followed by a blood stage with all clinical manifestation of the disease. In this study, we investigated a series of 2-alkynoic fatty acids (2-AFAs) with chain lengths between 14 and 18 carbon atoms for dual in vitro activity against both life stages. 2-Octadecynoic acid (2-ODA) was identified as the best inhibitor of Plasmodium berghei parasites with ten times higher potency (IC50=0.

A phenotypic screen in zebrafish identifies a novel small-molecule inducer of ectopic tail formation suggestive of alterations in non-canonical Wnt/PCP signaling.

Zebrafish have recently emerged as an attractive model for the in vivo bioassay-guided isolation and characterization of pharmacologically active small molecules of natural origin. We carried out a zebrafish-based phenotypic screen of over 3000 plant-derived secondary metabolite extracts with the goal of identifying novel small-molecule modulators of the BMP and Wnt signaling pathways. One of the bioactive plant extracts identified in this screen - Jasminum gilgianum, an Oleaceae species native to Papua New Guinea - induced ectopic tails during zebrafish embryonic development.

Optimization and pharmacological validation of a leukocyte migration assay in zebrafish larvae for the rapid in vivo bioactivity analysis of anti-inflammatory secondary metabolites.

Over the past decade, zebrafish (Danio rerio) have emerged as an attractive model for in vivo drug discovery. In this study, we explore the suitability of zebrafish larvae to rapidly evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of natural products (NPs) and medicinal plants used in traditional medicine for the treatment of inflammatory disorders. First, we optimized a zebrafish assay for leukocyte migration.

Integration of Microfractionation, qNMR and zebrafish screening for the in vivo bioassay-guided isolation and quantitative bioactivity analysis of natural products.

Natural products (NPs) are an attractive source of chemical diversity for small-molecule drug discovery. Several challenges nevertheless persist with respect to NP discovery, including the time and effort required for bioassay-guided isolation of bioactive NPs, and the limited biomedical relevance to date of in vitro bioassays used in this context. With regard to bioassays, zebrafish have recently emerged as an effective model system for chemical biology, allowing in vivo high-content screens that are compatible with microgram amounts of compound.

Discovery of novel anti-inflammatory drug-like compounds by aligning in silico and in vivo screening: the nitroindazolinone chemotype.

In this report, we propose the combination of computational methods and in vivo primary screening in zebrafish larvae and confirmatory in mice models as a novel strategy to accelerate anti-inflammatory drug discovery. Initially, a database of 1213 organic chemicals with great structural variability - 587 of them anti-inflammatory agents plus 626 compounds with other clinical uses - was divided into training and test groups. Atom-based quadratic indices - a TOMOCOMD-CARDD molecular descriptors family - and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were used to develop a total of 13 models to describe the anti-inflammatory activity.