O MODELO ANIMAL DO ZEBRAFISH (DANIO RERIO) USADO PARA DIFERENTES ABORDAGENS TERAPÊUTICAS PARA A SUPRESSÃO DA CRISE EPILÉPTICA: UMA REVISÃO SISTEMÁTICA

doi.org/10.29327/4431007

Abstract

Epilepsy represents one of the most common neurological diseases, affecting about 70 million people worldwide. Recent advances in genetic research have discovered a wide spectrum of genes involved in various forms of epilepsy, their cause may be due to inflammation, neuronal trauma or brain malformations, highlighting the heterogeneous nature of this disorder. In addition, unfortunately, older epileptic drugs have many side effects, with cognitive impairment being the main side effect that affects the daily lives of people with epilepsy. Appropriate animal models are essential to investigate the pathological mechanisms triggered by genetic mutations involved in epilepsy and to develop specific and targeted therapies. The models of zebrafish diseases (Danio rerio) are relevant to the pathophysiology of human diseases. In recent years, zebrafish has emerged as a valuable vertebrate organism for modeling epilepsies, using genetic manipulation or exposure to know epileptogenic drugs, such as pentylenetetrazole (PTZ), to identify new antiepileptic therapies. The aim of the present study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature in order to understand how zebrafish has been used for the study of epilepsy. For this purpose, a literature search was made in the Medline, Lilacs, Science, Citation Index, SciELO, PUBMED, Google Scholar, CAPES and BVS Bireme databases. The keywords used were: ‘’ Suppression of the epileptic crisis’’, ‘’Animal Model’’, ‘’Zebrafish’’ in the databases. As a result, it was possible to observe 16 articles included after the qualitative synthesis, of these, 44% of the articles analyzed a certain drug in the treatment of epilepsy, 30% dealt with the induction of epilepsy to study the pathways involved in this disease, 22% carried out studies strictly involved to Dravet's Syndrome. In conclusion, it can be said that developing an animal model for brain disorders, particularly epilepsy, is very difficult due to the complexity of the disease. Most of the preclinical research on epilepsy has focused on rodents. However, recent research points to zebrafish as an excellent target for laboratory analysis, as it has a great similarity to mammals and is highly advantageous with its unique properties, such as external fertilization, small size, as well as optical clarity of embryos. The central role of receptors in epilepsy demonstrates the potential usefulness of targets for controlling seizures in these animal models.