Title:Importance of Zebrafish as an Efficient Research Model for the Screening of Novel Therapeutics in Neurological Disorders
Volume: 20
Issue: 2
Author(s): Diksha Saluja, Rishabh Jhanji, Swati Kaushal, Bharti Verma, Neelam Sharma, Rima Singh, Shelly Agrawal, Meena Yadav, Anoop Kumar, Charan Singh and Arti Singh*
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmacology, ISF College of Pharmacy, Moga-142001, Punjab,India
Keywords:
Alzheimer's disease, anxiety, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, depression, epilepsy, Huntington's disease, sleep deprivation,
zebrafish.
Abstract: Over the previous years, the use of an animal model has become very common for the
screening of novel drugs. Animal model represents the complex problems of humans into the simplest
forms, so these can be extended further to be included in the experimental procedure. The
most successful models in neuroscience, rats and mice, are undoubtedly considered as one of the
best models to understand the psychology of the mammalian brain and its associated functions involved
in behavioral repertoire. Moreover, recently researchers in behavioral neuroscience are focusing
more on the use of aquatic animals, especially fish, as model species due to their simplicity
and cost-effectiveness. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a tropical fish from the minnow family, a genetic
structure surprisingly 84% similar to humans. It is gaining popularity as a model to study the mechanism
in behavioral neuropharmacology. Moreover, zebrafish has numerous advantages over other
rodent models like the ease in maintenance due to their small size, more breeding power, transparency
of embryos, overall reduced cost of experimentation, and many more. Nowadays, it is considered
an ideal model to study the neurobehavioral aspects with relevance to humans. It is also
used in a variety of scientific studies like genetics, neuroscience, pharmacology, and toxicology. In
this manuscript, we have described the feasibility and importance of zebrafish as a model for the
screening of novel drugs for different neurological disorders.