Currently, only symptomatic therapy is available for Parkinson's disease. The zebrafish is a vertebrate animal model ideally suited for high throughput compound screening to identify disease-modifying compounds for Parkinson's disease. We have developed a zebrafish model for Parkin deficiency, the most commonly mutated gene in early onset Parkinson's disease. The zebrafish Parkin protein is 62% identical to its human counterpart with 78% identity in functionally relevant regions. The parkin gene is expressed throughout zebrafish development and ubiquitously in adult zebrafish tissue. Abrogation of Parkin activity leads to a significant decrease in the number of ascending dopaminergic neurons in the posterior tuberculum (homologous to the substantia nigra in humans), an effect enhanced by exposure to MPP+. Both light microscopic analysis and staining with the pan-neuronal marker HuC confirmed that this loss of dopaminergic neurons is not due to general impairment of brain development. Neither serotonergic nor motor neurons were affected, further emphasizing that the effect of parkin knockdown appears to be specific for dopaminergic neurons. Notably, parkin knockdown zebrafish embryos also develop specific reduction in the activity of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I, making this the first vertebrate model to share both important pathogenic mechanisms (i.e. complex I deficiency) and the pathological hallmark (i.e. dopaminergic cell loss) with human parkin-mutant patients. The zebrafish model is thus ideally suited for future drug screens and other studies investigating the functional mechanisms underlying neuronal cell death in early onset Parkinson's Disease. Additional electron microscopy studies revealed electron dense material in the t-tubules within the muscle tissue of parkin knockdown zebrafish. T-tubules are rich in L-type calcium channels, therefore our work might also provide a tentative link between genetically determined early onset Parkinson's disease and recent studies attributing an important role to these L-type calcium channels in late onset sporadic Parkinson's disease.

The zebrafish, long recognized as a model organism for the analysis of basic developmental processes, is now also emerging as an alternative animal model for human diseases. This review will first provide an overview of the particular characteristics of zebrafish in general and their dopaminergic nervous system in particular. We will then summarize all work undertaken so far to establish zebrafish as a new animal model for movement disorders and will finally emphasize its particular strength -amenability to high throughput in vivo drug screening.

ObjectiveLoss of function mutations in PINK1 typically lead to early onset Parkinson disease (PD). Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are emerging as a powerful new vertebrate model to study neurodegenerative diseases. We used a pink1 mutant (pink−/−) zebrafish line with a premature stop mutation (Y431*) in the PINK1 kinase domain to identify molecular mechanisms leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and loss of dopaminergic neurons in PINK1 deficiency.MethodsThe effect of PINK1 deficiency on the number of dopaminergic neurons, mitochondrial function, and morphology was assessed in both zebrafish embryos and adults. Genome‐wide gene expression studies were undertaken to identify novel pathogenic mechanisms. Functional experiments were carried out to further investigate the effect of PINK1 deficiency on early neurodevelopmental mechanisms and microglial activation.ResultsPINK1 deficiency results in loss of dopaminergic neurons as well as early impairment of mitochondrial function and morphology in Danio rerio. Expression of TigarB, the zebrafish orthologue of the human, TP53‐induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator TIGAR, was markedly increased in pink−/− larvae. Antisense‐mediated inactivation of TigarB gave rise to complete normalization of mitochondrial function, with resulting rescue of dopaminergic neurons in pink−/− larvae. There was also marked microglial activation in pink−/− larvae, but depletion of microglia failed to rescue the dopaminergic neuron loss, arguing against microglial activation being a key factor in the pathogenesis.InterpretationPink1−/− zebrafish are the first vertebrate model of PINK1 deficiency with loss of dopaminergic neurons. Our study also identifies TIGAR as a promising novel target for disease‐modifying therapy in PINK1‐related PD. Ann Neurol 2013;74:837–847

BackgroundZebrafish are a vertebrate animal model system which is highly amenable for drug screens. Autosomal recessively inherited, loss of function mutations in the PTEN-induced kinase 1 (pink1) gene are one cause of early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD).Objectives(1) To establish a stable pink1 mutant zebrafish line and determine whether this pink1 mutant line shares crucial characteristics with human pink1-mutant patients, in particular loss of dopaminergic neurones and impaired mitochondrial function. (2) To further elucidate mechanisms leading to impaired mitochondrial function and neuronal cell death in early onset PD.FindingsWe screened several libraries of ENU-mutagenised fish using primers corresponding to all eight exons of pink1, and found a single founder with a stop mutation in exon 7 (Y431*). Adult pink1−/− fish do not display any overt behavioural abnormalities. Pink1−/− embryos at 5 days postfertilisation (dpf) have a significant (p<0.05) decrease in the number of TH+ cells and reduction in mitochondrial complex I activity. Eight of 21 genes down-regulated in pink1 −/− embryos are involved in energy production, mitochondrial function or oxidative stress response.ConclusionOur results suggest these pink1−/− zebrafish may be a useful tool for studying the pathogenesis of early-onset PD, and could also be used in small molecule screens to identify new drug targets.