Zebrafish and Drug Development: A Behavioral Assay System for Probing Nicotine Function in Larval Zebrafish

The attributes of the zebrafish (Danio rerio ) make it an excellent model system for the development and discovery of new drugs. A robust behavioral assay is described that has been used successfully in studies of nicotine biology. The movement response of a group of larval zebrafish is measured over a 5-min period following application of nicotine. Pretreatment of larvae is employed to identify chemical compounds that reduce locomotor responses to acute nicotine. Activity plots provide an assessment of the biological activity and specificity of neuroactive chemical compounds in intact organisms. The experimental setup can be established in a research or teaching laboratory. The described behavioral assay can be used in pharmacological studies for the characterization of new chemical compounds and is a powerful tool for the discovery of behavioral zebrafish mutants.