AUTHOR=Omar Noor Azzizah , Kumar Jaya , Teoh Seong Lin 

TITLE=Parkinson’s disease model in zebrafish using intraperitoneal MPTP injection

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=17

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2023.1236049

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2023.1236049

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease that severely affects the quality of life of patients and their family members. Exposure to 1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) has been shown to reflect behavioral, molecular, and proteomic features of PD. This study aimed to assess the protocol for inducing PD following MPTP injection in adult zebrafish.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Fish were injected with 100 μg/g of MPTP intraperitoneally once or twice and then assessed on days 1 to 30 post-injection.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Between one-time and two-time injections, there was no significant difference in most locomotor parameters, expressions of <italic>tyrosine hydroxylase-2</italic> (<italic>th2</italic>) and <italic>dopamine transporter</italic> (<italic>dat</italic>) genes, and dopaminergic neurons (tyrosine hydroxylase positive, TH+ cells) counts. However, caspase-3 levels significantly differed between one- and two-time injections on the day 1 assessment.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>Over a 30-day period, the parameters showed significant differences in swimming speed, total distance traveled, <italic>tyrosine hydroxylase-1</italic> (<italic>th1</italic>) and dat gene expressions, caspase-3 and glutathione protein levels, and TH+ cell counts. Days 3 and 5 showed the most changes compared to the control. In conclusion, a one-time injection of MPTP with delayed assessment on days 3 to 5 is a good PD model for animal studies.</p></sec>