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Fish models in experimental pharmacology: on the mark or off the mark?


Affiliations
1 Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram 695 011, India, India
2 Marine Biotechnology Division, ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi 682 018, India, India
3 ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa, Goa 403 402, India, India
 

Fish has emerged as an alternative model organism in biomedical research for conducting experimental pharmacological and toxicological studies. As a vertebrate, it shares many conserved physiological and molecular features with humans making it a valuable model for diagnosing, investigating disease states and testing drugs to check toxicity and therapeutic activity against the target. Zebrafish and medaka are mainstream models that are widely employed in pharmaceutical research. This study aims to highlight the probability and potential of fish as an alternative model organism in biomedical research, drug discovery and development. Further, it discusses the limitations of fish models in experimental pharmacological and toxicological studies considering the changes in the residing environment, physiology, metabolism, unpredictable inter-individual variability due to diseases, variable conditioning, and interspecific and intraspecific variability

Keywords

Drug screening, fish, model organism, phar-macology, toxicology.
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  • Fish models in experimental pharmacology: on the mark or off the mark?

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Authors

Supriya Raja Harikumar
Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram 695 011, India, India
Reshma Janardhanan
Marine Biotechnology Division, ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi 682 018, India, India
Giri Bhavan Sreekanth
ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa, Goa 403 402, India, India

Abstract


Fish has emerged as an alternative model organism in biomedical research for conducting experimental pharmacological and toxicological studies. As a vertebrate, it shares many conserved physiological and molecular features with humans making it a valuable model for diagnosing, investigating disease states and testing drugs to check toxicity and therapeutic activity against the target. Zebrafish and medaka are mainstream models that are widely employed in pharmaceutical research. This study aims to highlight the probability and potential of fish as an alternative model organism in biomedical research, drug discovery and development. Further, it discusses the limitations of fish models in experimental pharmacological and toxicological studies considering the changes in the residing environment, physiology, metabolism, unpredictable inter-individual variability due to diseases, variable conditioning, and interspecific and intraspecific variability

Keywords


Drug screening, fish, model organism, phar-macology, toxicology.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv123%2Fi10%2F1199-1206