Customized Zebrafish Models of Ocular Infection

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Various ocular infections, such as keratitis, are another cause of blindness and visual impairment worldwide. As one of the global leaders in the field of eye diseases, Ace Therapeutics provides our customers with high-quality zebrafish models of eye infections by exploring various pathogens that induce zebrafish eye diseases. Here, you'll benefit from our researchers' deep understanding of zebrafish and ocular diseases to accelerate your projects.

Zebrafish Models of Ocular Infections

Ocular Infections Introduction

Ocular infections include various keratitis, conjunctivitis, and intraocular inflammation. While most eye infections are benign, others can have devastating visual consequences. Clinical manifestations are ocular discharge, visual symptoms, or eye redness or pain. Some of the most common pathogens associated with bacterial keratitis include Gram-positive organisms, and common Gram-negative strains pseudomonas, Chlamydia trachomatis, viruses (herpes simplex virus), Acanthamoeba, Tuberculosis, and Toxoplasma gondii. In recent years, ocular tuberculosis and congenital ZIKV infection have become significant causes affecting human life quality in some areas. They can lead to loss of vision. As a popular biological model, the zebrafish is increasingly used as an ideal model for studying pathogen-host interactions.

Fig. 1. Anatomical localization of intraocular granuloma after M. marinum infection. (Takaki K, et al., 2018)

Service Overview

Corneal damage greatly increases infection and keratitis risk. When the corneal epithelial cell barrier is damaged, the eye is particularly vulnerable to bacteria, fungi, and viruses that can cause infection. As a preclinical CRO with comprehensive eye disease solutions, Ace Therapeutics is committed to exploring various pathogens that induce eye diseases in zebrafish, thereby simulating human eye infection diseases and bringing more opportunities for new therapies.

Here, we develop two models of ocular infection in zebrafish and are exploring additional possibilities.

Explore Ace Therapeutics' Zebrafish Models of Ocular Infections

Ace Therapeutics provides the following zebrafish ocular infection models to global customers, including but not limited to:

Zebrafish models for ocular tuberculosis

Our researchers induce a model that is similar to ocular tuberculosis disease by anesthetizing zebrafish larvae at specific developmental stages (2 or 3 dpf) and injecting them with M. marinum strain.

Model characteristics: Early granuloma formation in the retina of an infected eye.

Zebrafish models for Zika virus infection

Our researchers induce a Zika virus infection model in zebrafish larvae by injecting the Brazilian strain of ZIKV into the yolk sac of zebrafish one-cell stage embryos. The follow-up period was 72h.

Model characteristics: After 72 hours, ZIKV successfully infected larvae, and the retina showed obvious damage features, including increased lens and inner layer thickness.

It is worth mentioning that Ace Therapeutics also provides a series of rodent models of infectious keratitis to help customers comprehensively explore the mechanism of ocular inflammation and develop new anti-inflammatory therapies.

Ace Therapeutics aims to provide a powerful analytical tool to help our global customers study the cellular and molecular mechanisms of diseases associated with ocular infectious phenotypes. If you are interested in our services or need more detailed information, please feel free to contact us. Our experienced scientists are ready to help you!

References

Rosa JGS, Lopes-Ferreira M, Lima C. An Overview towards Zebrafish Larvae as a Model for Ocular Diseases. Int J Mol Sci. 2023, 24(6):5387.
Takaki K, Ramakrishnan L, Basu S. A zebrafish model for ocular tuberculosis. PLoS One. 2018, 13(3):e0194982.
Maleski ALA, Rosa JGS, Bernardo JTG, et al. Recapitulation of Retinal Damage in Zebrafish Larvae Infected with Zika Virus. Cells. 2022, 11(9):1457.

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