Zebrafish Model System in Antimicrobial Drug Discovery

Abstract

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) has already been used in disease modelling and drug discovery. The development of zebrafish as an infectious disease model for studying human diseases has paved the path in understanding pathogenesis and host–pathogen interactions. Many pathogenic zebrafish models were generated using different species of bacteria, parasites, fungus, and virus which are pathogenic to humans and studied their pathogenesis, but very few people tested the antimicrobial drugs on the diseased models. In the present chapter we have been trying to discuss common diseases of zebrafish along with infectious diseases modelled and the importance of zebrafish in antimicrobial drug discovery, how relevant its immune system with that of humans is in defense against pathogens and drug metabolism. The limitations like how antibiotics are harmful to early stages of development and relevance of using the larval and adult zebrafish were also discussed.