Experimental assessment of the neurotoxicity of antitumor drugs in <i>Danio rerio</i> fish

BACKGROUND: Neurotoxicity is one of the specific complications of antitumor therapy, which is a serious problem both during the therapy itself and when creating models for its study. Behavioral tests on Danio rerio fish act as an excellent model for creating neurotoxicity and allow to evaluate it in the shortest possible time. AIM: To evaluate the neurotoxic properties of the anticancer drugs doxorubicin and oxaliplatin on Danio rerio (zebrafish) fish through behavioral tests and their evaluation using a program for manual processing of animal behavior. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 45 adult Danio rerio fish were used in the study. Three groups were formed: control group (n = 15), experimental group No. 1 (n = 15) — doxorubicin, experimental group No. 2 (n = 15) — oxaliplatin. A specific dose of the drug was selected for each experimental group. After completing the course of drugs, behavioral tests were conducted, which were recorded on a video camera and processed in the RealTimer application. All tests were repeated three days later to detect reversible neurotoxicity. RESULTS: As a result of the effects of the antitumor drugs doxorubicin and oxaliplatin on Danio rerio fish, neurotoxic abnormalities were detected, which were noticed during behavioral tests: “Social interaction”, “Social preference” and “Aggression”. In the case of doxorubicin, the fish showed severe irritability and high activity, while the fish treated with oxaliplatin showed inhibition and frequent cases of freezing. CONCLUSIONS: During the experiment, a new model was developed and tested to study the neurotoxicity of antitumor drugs on Danio rerio (zebrafish) fish. In addition to confirming the neurotoxicity of antitumor drugs, reversible nephrotoxicity of oxaliplatin was obtained. The study showed the possibility of using the program to evaluate test results in Danio rerio (zebrafish) fish.