Zebrafish model for the screening of Endocrine Disruptors

New Step Forward in the Field of Thyroid Disruption Screening Method for Early Drug and Chemical Development

As of today the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is willing to identify thyroid-related endpoints in fish, that can be implemented into existing test guidelines for the assessment of EDC-related effects. Being this said, at Biobide they have published a new scientific research where it has been validated the Thyroid Disruption (TD) Assay in zebrafish embryos by fluorescence image analysis utilizing the transgenic zebrafish line (Tg(tg:mCherry)). This has been implemented into a semi-automated throughput for versatile applications in the challenging field of TD screening for industry in early drug and chemical development.

 

The results, published in Elsevier special edition Reproductive Toxicology magazine by Biobide in collaboration with GriLab, render the fluorescence assay as a robust, cost and time effective tool to detect TDC within the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Thyroid (HPT) axis. Additionally, a new Lliquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry method (LCMS) was developed to determine T3 and T4 hormone levels in zebrafish larvae, further advancing the understanding of thyroid disruption’s impact.

 

Recent investigations on chemical’s mode of action (MoA) expand our understanding about potential hazards such as neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, reactive toxicity, narcosis, and baseline toxicity. However, the chemical potential to disrupt the endocrine system of vertebrates remains a difficult challenge for chemical producers to identify and regulatory authorities to approve the commercialization.

 

The need of implementing New Alternative Methodologies (NAMs) in order to advance in the environmental assessment for fish and amphibians under the 3Rs principle is a clear necesity, specially to overcome currently insufficient testing strategies for thyroid disruption (TD).

 

In this context, the leading zebrafish Contract Research Organization (CRO), Biobide, continues to make significant strides, and the publication of their latest scientific paper represents a groundbreaking contribution to the scientific, health, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical sector in this area.