Zebrafish models for functional and toxicological screening of nanoscale drug delivery systems: promoting preclinical applications.

Keon Yong Lee,Peter C Searson,Minhong Jeun,Gun Hyuk Jang,Cho Hyun Byun,Kwan Hyi Lee

doi:10.1042/bsr20170199

Abstract

Preclinical screening with animal models is an important initial step in clinical translation of new drug delivery systems. However, establishing efficacy, biodistribution, and biotoxicity of complex, multicomponent systems in small animal models can be expensive and time-consuming. Zebrafish models represent an alternative for preclinical studies for nanoscale drug delivery systems. These models allow easy optical imaging, large sample size, and organ-specific studies, and hence an increasing number of preclinical studies are employing zebrafish models. In this review, we introduce various models and discuss recent studies of nanoscale drug delivery systems in zebrafish models. Also in the end, we proposed a guideline for the preclinical trials to accelerate the progress in this field.

Highlights

Relative to the dynamic research atmosphere in the development of nanoscale drug delivery systems, the number of consumer drugs that incorporate nanotechnology is very low
Countless nanoscale drug delivery system researches are focused on cancer treatments, and there are more than a dozen journals that concentrate on this particular topic; commercially and widely used FDA-approved nanomedicines are limited to a few, including Abraxane for metastatic breast cancer, Doxil for ovarian cancer and Emend for chemotherapy induced nausea [1,2]
Functional and toxicological screenings of nanomaterials are essential for successful development of nanoscale drug delivery system, especially when the safety of nanomedicine is continuously questioned

Summary

Introduction

Relative to the dynamic research atmosphere in the development of nanoscale drug delivery systems, the number of consumer drugs that incorporate nanotechnology is very low. Due to such high demand of money and time, many tend to refrain from including preclinical screenings with animal models during the development of new nanoscale drug delivery systems, and compromise with the less demanding in vitro assays. Functional screening of nanoscale drug delivery systems with zebrafish models Nanomaterials’ versatility allowed the development of nanoscale drug delivery systems with ingenuous functionalities such as targetting ability and light/heat-reactive releasing capability of loads [57,58,59,60] Until those capabilities are proven to perfectly work in in vivo settings, the nanomedicine cannot be clinically adopted [61]. Angiogenesis and anticancer drugs As mentioned above, zebrafish models have transparent body to allow researchers to observe their blood vessels (BVs) and learn about the distribution and functionalities of nanoscale drug delivery systems [33].

Method

Findings

Conclusion