The Zebrafish facility at DRILS was established in 2009 and serves as a resource for DRILS scientists as well as external users from academia and industry. Broadly the following activities and services are available:
Toxicology Services:
Zebrafish toxicology has been the most well researched and rapidly developing area in the field of zebrafish biology. Several models that have been standardized and validated are being used worldwide. OECD guidelines for toxicity testing have also been approved for zebrafish based toxicological assessment.
At DRILS, we have validated the following zebrafish toxicology assays:
- Hepatotoxicity
- ECG–QT analysis
- Cardiac safety – heart rate assay
- Pro/Anti Convulsant activity
- Nephrotoxicity
- Teratogenecity
- Environmental Toxicity
Disease Models and lines:
Chemical, transgenic (CRISPR) and transient (DNAzyme knockdown, overexpression) models
Pharmacokinetic Models:
Pharmacokinetic studies are one of the first in-vivo studies that are carried out on candidate drugs. These studies help in understanding and deciding the druggability, criteria such as dosage, dosing regimen, metabolism, etc. Zebrafish can be very useful in identifying these criteria very early in the drug screening process, especially, when the compound availability is very low. At DRILS we have developed methods for oral drug administration and studied the core parameters viz.:
- Pharmacokinetics
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- Exposure (AUC)
- Half Life (t1/2)
- Maximum peak concentration (Cmax)
- Time for maximum peak concentration (Tmax)
- Clearance (Cl)
- Volume of distribution (Vd)
- Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) permeability
- Metabolite identification