Swimming against the stream: zebrafish help us to understand neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases like Parkinson’s. 3 Genetics: causative mutations and common variants increasing the risk for sporadic forms of neurodegenerative diseases; Environment: environmental toxins, stress, social interactions, infections, nutrition; Aging: dysmetabolism, hormonal factors, accumulation of damaging insults, genomic instability, immune derangement. Keywords Zebrafish.Neurodegenerative diseases. The zebrafish is a vertebrate and has a high degree of structural homology to humans and highly conserved genes. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of neurodegenerative disease. The blood-brain barrier is the main obstacle in treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson. A zebrafish model of CLN2 disease is deficient in tripeptidyl peptidase 1 and displays progressive neurodegeneration accompanied by a reduction in proliferation. for these devastating diseases. Despite significant progress in the field of tau biology and neurodegenerative diseases, several important issues remain unresolved. Globally, the incidence of dementia was estimated in 2001 to be 24.3 million with an estimated increase to 81.1 million in 2040 .Clinically, AD is characterised by progressive memory loss and can include impairment of speech and motor ability, depression, delusions, … Alzheimer's disease. "This … [1999] PNAS 96:5598–5603). Aspects of zebrafish neuroanatomy of relevance to modeling human neurodegenerative diseases. A paper published in Nature unveiled the long-awaited sequence of the zebrafish genome, revealing that zebrafish, mice and human have 12,719 genes in common. Vogel [1998] Science 280:1524–1525; Goedert et al. neurodegenerative diseases and for the screening of com-pounds with therapeutic potential. But even more notable is the finding that 84% of human disease-causing genes are found in zebrafish. The section was labeled using a primary antibody to tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), demonstrating groups of dopaminergic neurons.PP preoptic complex, VT ventral thalamus, PT … The use of model organisms is fundamental in the search, development and evaluation of potential therapies[1]. The emerging use of the zebrafish model in neurological and neurodegenerative human diseases (such as PD, autism, Huntington’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease) was described by Xi et al. [1998] Neuron 21:955–958; D'Souza et al. Currently, there is not a single effective medicine that halts or even slows any neurodegenerative disease. a Shows an epifluorescence micrograph of a sagittal section through the diencephalon of an adult zebrafish brain. This has rekindled interest in the importance of tau in neurodegenerative diseases (cf. We use the zebrafish as a model organism to study neurodegenerative diseases. 1. Most of the hypokinetic syndromes are associated with the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson’s disease (PD). Parkinson’s disease.Huntington’s disease.Alzheimer’s disease.Dopaminergic neuron Introduction The zebrafish has been widely used as a model for the study of developmental biology. The zebrafish is emerging as a robust model system to investigate cells in vivo, and offer distinct advantages over other vertebrate models for investigating neurodegenerative diseases. Put another way, 70% of human genes are found in zebrafish. Movement disorders can be primarily divided into hypokinetic and hyperkinetic. One major reason for its By contrast, hyperkinetic syndromes encompass a broader array of diseases, including dystonia, essential tremor, or Huntington’s disease. Mahmood F(1), Fu S, Cooke J, Wilson SW, Cooper JD, Russell C. ... then on zebrafish. 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