Dataset Information

Small Marine Neurotoxin Elicits Common Antibody Response in Zebrafish and Sea Lions

ABSTRACT: The neurotoxic amino acid, domoic acid, is naturally produced by marine phytoplankton and presents a significant health threat to marine mammal and human populations. Currently, diagnostic tools to assess exposure are not available, yet concerns regarding health impacts associated with low-level repetitive exposure are growing. Here we applied a laboratory zebrafish model to assess exposure to asymptomatic doses of domoic acid in a nine-month low-level repetitive exposure study. Blood analyses, whole brain gene expression, and functional lymphocyte proliferation assays analyzed at 11 time points revealed a quantifiable antibody response that was temporally correlated with upregulated immune response genes and significantly increased spontaneous lymphocyte proliferation. The antibody response was further validated in field exposed California sea lions and provides the first biomarker for chronic exposure assessment.

ORGANISM(S): Danio rerio

PROVIDER: GSE34716 | GEO | 2013/01/03

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA150439

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Domoic acid (DA) is a naturally produced neurotoxin synthesized by the marine diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia. DA accumulates in filter-feeders such as shellfish, and can produce severe neurotoxicity when contaminated seafood is ingested. DA poisoning is a significant public health concern, and though seafood regulations have effectively minimized the human risk of severe acute poisoning, the effects of exposure at asymptomatic levels are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of exposure to symptomatic and asymptomatic doses of DA on gene expression patterns in the zebrafish brain. We exposed adult zebrafish to either a symptomatic (1.1 ± 0.2 μg /g) or an asymptomatic (0.31 ± 0.03 µg DA/g fish) dose of DA by intracelomic injection and sampled at 24, 48 and 168 h post-injection. Transcriptional profiling was done using Agilent and Affymetrix microarrays. Our analysis revealed distinct, non-overlapping changes in gene expression between the two doses. We found that the majority of transcriptional changes were observed at 24 hours post-injection with both doses. In response to symptomatic dose exposure, we observed 328, 5, and 1 genes were differentially expressed at 24, 48 and 168 hours post-injection, respectively. In contrast, 136, 12, and 28 genes were differentially expressed in the asymptomatic dose at the same time points. Pathway analysis revealed symptomatic DA exposure affected genes associated with pathways including cell adhesion, inflammation, and amyloid proteins. Among the pathways enriched among genes differentially expressed with asymptomatic exposure were circadian rhythms and endocrine signaling. Overall, these results suggest that transcriptional responses are specific to the DA dose and that asymptomatic exposure can cause long-term changes. Many of the differentially expressed genes are important players in neuronal, neuroimmune and neuroendocrine function. Further studies are needed to characterize the potential downstream neurobehavioral impacts of DA exposure.

Dataset Information

Small Marine Neurotoxin Elicits Common Antibody Response in Zebrafish and Sea Lions

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure