Neutrophils are key cells of the innate immune system, the first line of defense against infection. However, neutrophils can drive a chronic inflammatory response that underlies the pathogenesis of many common diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Despite the prominence of neutrophil-mediated inflammation in disease, there are no suitable neutrophil-targeted treatments currently available. A new report from the laboratories of Stephen Renshaw and Philip Ingham describes a novel approach for the rapid identification of compounds that can inhibit neutrophil recruitment in response to tissue injury in vivo. Using a zebrafish line in which neutrophils are labelled by GFP expression, the team screened a library of fungi-derived compounds and pinpointed a mycotoxin and a natural antibiotic with specific inhibitory effects on neutrophil migration. An in vivo imaging assay showed that the antibiotic acts independently of commonly implicated signalling pathways, suggesting an unanticipated mechanism of action. This work demonstrates that zebrafish can be used as a robust in vivo platform for high-throughput drug discovery. Page 163
Drug discovery for neutrophil-mediated inflammation
Drug discovery for neutrophil-mediated inflammation. Dis Model Mech 1 January 2014; 7 (1): 1. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Sex matters in preclinical research
DMM calls for improved inclusion, analysis and reporting of sex as a biological variable in preclinical animal modelling research. Read the full Editorial by Monica J. Justice.
Subject collection: Building advocacy into research
DMM’s new series - Building advocacy into research - features interviews, ‘The Patient’s Voice’, with patients and advocates for a range of disease types, with the aim of supporting the highest quality research for the benefit of all patients affected by disease.
Travelling Fellowships for early-career researchers
DMM and its sister journals offer Travelling Fellowships of up to £3,000 to graduate students and post-doctoral researchers wishing to make collaborative visits to other laboratories. Find out more about our Travelling Fellowships and read stories from previous grant recipients.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.
The Forest of Biologists
Our Publisher Claire Moulton recently visited the two Woodland Trust UK sites where we are planting new native trees for published Research and Review papers and protecting ancient woodland on behalf of our peer reviewers.
Other journals from
The Company of Biologists