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Updated: Dec 4, 2025
Studying Neurobehavioral Effects of Environmental Pollutants on Zebrafish Larvae
Published on: February 5, 2020
Carboxyl graphene oxide nanoparticles induce neurodevelopmental defects and locomotor disorders in zebrafish larvae
Zigang Cao1, Meile Su2, Honglei Wang3
1Jiangxi Engineering Laboratory of Zebrafish Modeling and Drug Screening for Human Diseases, Jinggangshan University, Ji'an, 343009, Jiangxi, China; Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Developmental Biology of Organs, Jinggangshan University, Ji'an, 343009, Jiangxi, China; Affiliated Hospital of Jinggangshan University, College of Life Sciences, Jinggangshan University, Ji'an, 343009, Jiangxi, China; Jiangxi Engineering Laboratory of Zebrafish Modeling and Drug Screening for Human Diseases, Ji'an, Jiangxi, China; Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Developmental Biology of Organs, Ji'an, 343009 Jiangxi, China.
Abstract:
Graphene-family nanomaterials (GFNs) have been widely used in various fields due to their excellent properties. However, GFNs safety and environmental health have attracted more and more attentions and their potential toxic effects on organisms and the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this study, we utilized zebrafish to evaluate the toxicity of Carboxyl graphene oxide (GO-COOH). Exposure of zebrafish embryos to 10, 50 and 100 mg/L GO-COOH specifically induced neurodevelopmental abnormalities and altered tendency of locomotor in larval fish. Furthermore, GO-COOH exposure led to increase of AchE and ATPase activities and oxidative stress upregulation, and disrupted the expression of genes involved in neurodevelopment and neurotransmitter pathway. Interestingly, we found that Parkinson's disease-related genes' expression were disordered after GO-COOH treatment. Fullerenes and astaxanthin rescued the neurodevelopmental defects, tendency of locomotor and expression of Parkinson's disease-related genes caused by GO-COOH through downregulating oxidative stress. Therefore, our results suggest that GO-COOH has the potential to induce neurotoxicity and Parkinson's disease-like symptoms in zebrafish larvae.
