Neuro- and hepatic toxicological profile of (S)-2,4-diaminobutanoic acid in embryonic, adolescent and adult zebrafish
Abstract
(S)-2,4-Diaminobutanoic acid (DABA) is a noncanonical amino acid often co-produced by cyanobacteria along with β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) in algal blooms. Although BMAA is a well-established neurotoxin, the toxicity of DABA remains unclear. As part of our development of biocompatible materials, we wish to make use of DABA as both a building block and as the end-product of enzymatically induced depolymerization; however, if it is toxic at very low concentrations, this would not be possible. We examined the toxicity of DABA using both in vivo embryonic and adult zebrafish models. At higher sublethal concentrations (700 μm), the fish demonstrated early signs of cardiotoxicity. Adolescent zebrafish were able to tolerate a higher concentration. Post-mortem histological analysis of juvenile zebrafish showed no liver or brain abnormalities associated with hepato- or neurotoxicity. Combined, these results show that DABA exhibits no overt toxicity at concentrations (100-300 μm) within an order of magnitude of those envisioned for its application. This study further highlights the low cost and ease of using zebrafish as an early-stage toxicological screening tool.
References
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Cardiotoxicity
Cardiotoxicity refers to the muscle damage or dysfunction of heart electrophysiology caused by drug intake or due to disease complications. It is a well-known side effect of several cytotoxic drugs, especially of the anthracyclines and can lead to long term morbidity. Here is the latest research.