scholarly journals Development of Tg(UAS:SEC-Hsa.ANXA5-YFP,myl7:RFP); Casper(roy−/−,nacre−/−) Transparent Transgenic In Vivo Zebrafish Model to Study the Cardiomyocyte Function

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1963
Author(s):  
Surendra K. Rajpurohit ◽  
Aaron Gopal ◽  
May Ye Mon ◽  
Nikhil G. Patel ◽  
Vishal Arora

The zebrafish provided an excellent platform to study the genetic and molecular approach of cellular phenotype-based cardiac research. We designed a novel protocol to develop the transparent transgenic zebrafish model to study annexin-5 activity in the cardiovascular function by generating homozygous transparent skin Casper (roy−/−,nacre−/−); myl7:RFP; annexin-5:YFP transgenic zebrafish. The skin pigmentation background of any vertebrate model organism is a major obstruction for in vivo confocal imaging to study the transgenic cellular phenotype-based study. By developing Casper (roy−/−,nacre−/−); myl7; annexin-5 transparent transgenic zebrafish strain, we established time-lapse in vivo confocal microscopy to study cellular phenotype/pathologies of cardiomyocytes over time to quantify changes in cardiomyocyte morphology and function over time, comparing control and cardiac injury and cardio-oncology. Casper contributes to the study by integrating a transparent characteristic in adult zebrafish that allows for simpler transparent visualization and observation. The Casper (roy−/−,nacre−/−) transgenic progenies developed through cross-breeding with the transgenic strain of Tg (UAS:SEC-Hsa.ANXA5-YFP,myl7:RFP). Confocal and fluorescent microscopy were being used to obtain accurate, precise imaging and to determine fluorescent protein being activated. This study protocol was conducted under two sections; 1.1: Generation of homozygous Tg (UAS:SEC-Hsa.ANXA5-YFP,myl7:RFP); Casper (roy−/−,nacre−/−) zebrafish (generation F01-F06) and 1.2: Screening and sorting the transparent transgenic progeny and in vivo imaging to validate cardiac morphology through in vivo confocal imaging. We coined the newly developed strain as Tg (UAS:SEC-Hsa.ANXA5-YFP,myl7:RFP); Casper (roy−/−,nacre−/−) gmc1. Thus, the newly developed strain maintains transparency of the skin throughout the entire life of zebrafish and is capable of application of a non-invasive in vivo imaging process. These novel results provide an in vivo whole organism-based platform to design high-throughput screening and establish a new horizon for drug discovery in cardiac cell death and cardio-oncology therapeutics and treatment.

2021 ◽  
Vol 129 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Surendra K Rajpurohit ◽  
Aaron Gopal ◽  
May Y Mon ◽  
Nikhil Patel ◽  
Vishal Arora

The Zebrafish provided an excellent platform to study the genetic and molecular approach ofcardiac research. Zebrafish heart cells similar to human heart cells at the molecular level anddetermine gene functions that control cardiac function and dysfunction. In zebrafish heart, myl7is myosin 7 gene and identified as a regulatory gene orthologs to human MYL7. In the heart,Annexin5 activities contribute to cardiomyocyte dedifferentiation, proliferation and epicardial injuryresponses which leads to cardiac cell death by apoptosis and narcosis pathways. We aredeveloping annexin-5 activity in the cardiovascular function under normal and in metabolicaberration by generating homozygous Casper/ myl7:RFP; annexin-5:YFP transgenic zebrafish.By developing Casper/myl7/Annexin-5 transparent transgenic zebrafish model, we establish time-lapse in-vivo confocal microscopy to study of cellular phenotype/pathologies of thecardiomyocytes over time in newly developed strain to quantify changes in cardiomyocytemorphology and function overtime, comparing control and cardiac injury and cardio-oncologymodels. Transgenic zebrafish has normal type skin pigmentation background. In zebrafish,tracking of transgenic reporter activity in in-vivo is only possible in transparent stage. To maintaintransparency throughout the life, these strains crossbred with the skin transparent mutant Casper.Casper contributes to the study by integrating a transparent characteristic in adult zebrafish thatallows for simpler transparent visualization and observation. We develop casper transgenicprogenies through cross breeding with the transgenic strain of myl7:RFP;annexin-5:YFP .Confocal and fluorescent microscopy used to get accurate, precise imaging and to determinefluorescent protein being activated. 1.1: Generation of homozygous casper / myl7:RFP;annexin-5:YFP zebrafish (Generation F01-F05). 1.2: Screening and sorting the transgenic progeny andIn vivo imaging to validate cardiac morphology through in-vivo confocal imaging. Generation ofhomozygous casper / myl7:RFP;annexin-5:YFP zebrafish: Casper-Annexin5 homozygous stain:Cross breed casper and myl7/Annexin5 fish; F01: Generate the eggs from breeder and grow theembryo to attenuate larvae to screen for transgenic expression. F01 generation, larvae showtransgenic expression (47%). F02: transgenic expression larvae (39%). F02 heterozygous shownormal skin pattern; F03, larval show transgenic expression (43%). F04, transgenic larvae(90%).F04; 100% fishes are phenotypically casper; F05: heterozygous transgenic progeny togrow and continue to generate until achieve 100% homozygous casper-myl7-Annexin5 strain.These novel results provide in-vivo whole organism-based platform to design high throughputscreening and establish new horizon for drug discovery in the Cardiac Disease and Cardio-oncology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shan Cheng ◽  
Pan Jin ◽  
Heying Li ◽  
Duanqing Pei ◽  
Xiaodong Shu

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) to BCR-ABL1 have been successfully used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), however, multiple TKI-associated adverse events have been reported and become an emerging problem in patients. The mechanisms of TKI-induced toxicity are not fully understood and it remains challenging to predict potential cardiovascular toxicity of a compound. In this study, we established a zebrafish model to evaluate potential in vivo cardiovascular toxicity of TKIs. We treated the endothelium labeled Tg(kdrl:EGFP) transgenic zebrafish embryos with TKIs then performed confocal imaging to evaluate their vascular structure and function. We found that among FDA approved CML TKIs, ponatinib (the only approved TKI that is efficacious to T315I mutation) is the most toxic one. We then evaluated safety profiles of several clinical stage kinase inhibitors that can target T315I and found that HQP1351 treatment leads to vasculopathies similar to those induced by ponatinib while the allosteric ABL inhibitor asciminib does not induce noticeable cardiovascular defects, indicating it could be a promising therapeutic reagent for patients with T315I mutation. We then performed proof-of-principle study to rescue those TKI-induced cardiovascular toxicities and found that, among commonly used anti-hypertensive drugs, angiotensin receptor blockers such as azilsartan and valsartan are able to reduce ponatinib or HQP1351 induced cardiovascular toxicities. Together, this study establishes a zebrafish model that can be useful to evaluate cardiovascular toxicity of TKIs as well as to develop strategies to minimize TKI-induced adverse events.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cong-Jie Sun ◽  
Rong-Yin Hu ◽  
Zhi-Cao Li ◽  
Lu Jin ◽  
Chuan Ye ◽  
...  

AbstractMultidrug resistance (MDR) represents the major cause of unsatisfaction in the application of chemotherapy for cancer treatment. So far, an in vivo robust high-throughput screening system for anti-tumor drug MDR is still lacking and the molecular mechanisms for MDR still remain elusive. Given a myriad of merits of zebrafish relative to other animal models, we aimed to establish MDR system in zebrafish stably expressing ATP-binding cassette (ATP-cassette) superfamily transporters and study the potential regulatory mechanism. We first constructed a Tg(abcb4:EGFP) transgenic zebrafish stably expressing both Abcb4 and EGFP using Tol2-mediated approach. The expression level of Abcb4 and EGFP was significantly induced when Tg(abcb4:EGFP) transgenic zebrafish embryos were exposed to doxorubicin (DOX) or vincristine (VCR), accompany with a marked decrease in rhodamine B (RhB) accumulation in embryos, which indicates a remarkable increase in drug efflux upon the exposure to DOX or VCR. Mechanistically, AKT and ERK signaling were activated when treated with DOX or VCR. With the application of AKT and ERK inhibitors, the drug resistance phenomena could be reversed with differential responsive effects. Of note, downstream NF-κB played a central role in the regulation of Abcb4-mediated drug resistance. Taken together, the engineered Tg(abcb4:EGFP) transgenic zebrafish model provides a new platform for drug resistance screening in vivo, which could facilitate and accelerate the process of drug development.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 445
Author(s):  
Daniela Zizioli ◽  
Simona Bernardi ◽  
Marco Varinelli ◽  
Mirko Farina ◽  
Luca Mignani ◽  
...  

Zebrafish has proven to be a versatile and reliable experimental in vivo tool to study human hematopoiesis and model hematological malignancies. Transgenic technologies enable the generation of specific leukemia types by the expression of human oncogenes under specific promoters. Using this technology, a variety of myeloid and lymphoid malignancies zebrafish models have been described. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative neoplasia characterized by the BCR-ABL1 fusion gene, derived from the t (9;22) translocation causing the Philadelphia Chromosome (Ph). The BCR-ABL1 protein is a constitutively activated tyrosine kinas inducing the leukemogenesis and resulting in an accumulation of immature leukemic cells into bone marrow and peripheral blood. To model Ph+ CML, a transgenic zebrafish line expressing the human BCR-ABL1 was generated by the Gal4/UAS system, and then crossed with the hsp70-Gal4 transgenic line. The new line named (BCR-ABL1pUAS:CFP/hsp70-Gal4), presented altered expression of hematopoietic markers during embryonic development compared to controls and transgenic larvae showed proliferating hematopoietic cells in the caudal hematopoietic tissue (CHT). The present transgenic zebrafish would be a robust CML model and a high-throughput drug screening tool.


Pathogens ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 609
Author(s):  
Louise von Gersdorff Jørgensen

The use of zebrafish as a model for human conditions is widely recognized. Within the last couple of decades, the zebrafish has furthermore increasingly been utilized as a model for diseases in aquacultured fish species. The unique tools available in zebrafish present advantages compared to other animal models and unprecedented in vivo imaging and the use of transgenic zebrafish lines have contributed with novel knowledge to this field. In this review, investigations conducted in zebrafish on economically important diseases in aquacultured fish species are included. Studies are summarized on bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases and described in relation to prophylactic approaches, immunology and infection biology. Considerable attention has been assigned to innate and adaptive immunological responses. Finally, advantages and drawbacks of using the zebrafish as a model for aquacultured fish species are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (10) ◽  
pp. 675-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Wang ◽  
Sen Zhao ◽  
Bowen Liu ◽  
Qianqian Zhang ◽  
Yaqi Li ◽  
...  

BackgroundBrain arteriovenous malformations (BAVM) represent a congenital anomaly of the cerebral vessels with a prevalence of 10–18/100 000. BAVM is the leading aetiology of intracranial haemorrhage in children. Our objective was to identify gene variants potentially contributing to disease and to better define the molecular aetiology underlying non-syndromic sporadic BAVM.MethodsWe performed whole-exome trio sequencing of 100 unrelated families with a clinically uniform BAVM phenotype. Pathogenic variants were then studied in vivo using a transgenic zebrafish model.ResultsWe identified four pathogenic heterozygous variants in four patients, including one in the established BAVM-related gene, ENG, and three damaging variants in novel candidate genes: PITPNM3, SARS and LEMD3, which we then functionally validated in zebrafish. In addition, eight likely pathogenic heterozygous variants (TIMP3, SCUBE2, MAP4K4, CDH2, IL17RD, PREX2, ZFYVE16 and EGFR) were identified in eight patients, and 16 patients carried one or more variants of uncertain significance. Potential oligogenic inheritance (MAP4K4 with ENG, RASA1 with TIMP3 and SCUBE2 with ENG) was identified in three patients. Regulation of sma- and mad-related proteins (SMADs) (involved in bone morphogenic protein (BMP)/transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signalling) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/vascular endotheliual growth factor recepter 2 (VEGFR2) binding and activity (affecting the VEGF signalling pathway) were the most significantly affected biological process involved in the pathogenesis of BAVM.ConclusionsOur study highlights the specific role of BMP/TGF-β and VEGF/VEGFR signalling in the aetiology of BAVM and the efficiency of intensive parallel sequencing in the challenging context of genetically heterogeneous paradigm.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 153535002005051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Gillies ◽  
John M. Hoffman ◽  
Kit S. Lam ◽  
Anne E. Menkens ◽  
David R. Piwnica-Worms ◽  
...  

Combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening have become standard tools for discovering new drug candidates with suitable pharmacological properties. Now, those same technologies are starting to be applied to the problem of discovering novel in vivo imaging agents. Important differences in the biological and pharmacological properties needed for imaging agents, compared to those for a therapeutic agent, require new screening methods that emphasize those characteristics, such as optimized residence time and tissue specificity, that make for a good imaging agent candidate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Heins-Marroquin ◽  
Paul P Jung ◽  
Maria Lorena Cordero-Maldonado ◽  
Alexander D Crawford ◽  
Carole L Linster

Abstract Mutations in ATP13A2 (PARK9) 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 ATP13A2-associated disorders is not yet well understood and currently, these diseases remain without effective treatment. Interestingly, ATP13A2 is widely conserved among eukaryotes, and the yeast model for ATP13A2 deficiency was the first to indicate a role in heavy metal homeostasis, which was later confirmed in human cells. In this study, we show that the deletion of YPK9 (the yeast orthologue of ATP13A2) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae leads to growth impairment in the presence of Zn2+, Mn2+, Co2+ and Ni2+, with the strongest phenotype being observed in the presence of zinc. Using the ypk9Δ mutant, we developed a high-throughput growth rescue screen based on the Zn2+ sensitivity phenotype. Screening of two libraries of Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs identified 11 compounds that rescued growth. Subsequently, we generated a zebrafish model for ATP13A2 deficiency and found that both partial and complete loss of atp13a2 function led to increased sensitivity to Mn2+. Based on this phenotype, we confirmed two of the drugs found in the yeast screen to also exert a rescue effect in zebrafish—N-acetylcysteine, a potent antioxidant, and furaltadone, a nitrofuran antibiotic. This study further supports that combining the high-throughput screening capacity of yeast with rapid in vivo drug testing in zebrafish can represent an efficient drug repurposing strategy in the context of rare inherited disorders involving conserved genes. This work also deepens the understanding of the role of ATP13A2 in heavy metal detoxification and provides a new in vivo model for investigating ATP13A2 deficiency.


Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (15) ◽  
pp. 2803-2811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin B. Walters ◽  
Julie M. Green ◽  
Jill C. Surfus ◽  
Sa Kan Yoo ◽  
Anna Huttenlocher

Abstract CXCR4 is a G protein–coupled chemokine receptor that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of primary immunodeficiency disorders and cancer. Autosomal dominant gain-of-function truncations of CXCR4 are associated with warts, hypo-gammaglobulinemia, infections, and myelokathexis (WHIM) syndrome, a primary immunodeficiency disorder characterized by neutropenia and recurrent infections. Recent progress has implicated CXCR4-SDF1 (stromal cell-derived factor 1) signaling in regulating neutrophil homeostasis, but the precise role of CXCR4-SDF1 interactions in regulating neutrophil motility in vivo is not known. Here, we use the optical transparency of zebrafish to visualize neutrophil trafficking in vivo in a zebrafish model of WHIM syndrome. We demonstrate that expression of WHIM mutations in zebrafish neutrophils induces neutrophil retention in hematopoietic tissue, impairing neutrophil motility and wound recruitment. The neutrophil retention signal induced by WHIM truncation mutations is SDF1 dependent, because depletion of SDF1 with the use of morpholino oligonucleotides restores neutrophil chemotaxis to wounds. Moreover, localized activation of a genetically encoded, photoactivatable Rac guanosine triphosphatase is sufficient to direct migration of neutrophils that express the WHIM mutation. The findings suggest that this transgenic zebrafish model of WHIM syndrome may provide a valuable tool to screen for agents that modify CXCR4-SDF1 retention signals.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document