Nicotine prevents anxiety-like behavioral responses in zebrafish

Publication date: Available online 18 May 2019Source: Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological PsychiatryAuthor(s): Tâmie Duarte, Barbara D. Fontana, Talise E. Müller, Kanandra T. Bertoncello, Julia Canzian, Denis B. RosembergAbstractAnxiety-related disorders are severe psychiatric conditions that involve complex physiological and behavioral maladaptive responses. The use of conspecific alarm substance (CAS) for inducing anxiety-like behaviors in fish species provides important translational insights of how aversive conditions modulate neurobehavioral functions. Because nicotine may elicit anxiolytic-like responses, here we investigated whether acute nicotine exposure prevents CAS-induced anxiogenic-like behaviors in zebrafish. We used both novel tank and light-dark tests as two well-established paradigms for measuring anxiety-like behavior. Fish were individually exposed to 1 mg/L nicotine or non-chlorinated water for 3 min and then transferred to other tanks in the absence or presence of 3.5 mL/L CAS for 5 min. Later, the behavior of fish was tested in the novel tank test or in the light-dark preference test. As expected, CAS triggered aversive behaviors by increasing bottom dwelling, freezing, erratic movements, scototaxis, and risk assessment episodes. Nicotine alone elicited anxiolytic-like behaviors, since it increased the time spent in top area, as well as the average duration of entry in the lit compartment. Moreover, nicotine pretreatment prevent...

Source: Progress in Neuro Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry - May 19, 2019 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research