Inner ear sensory hair cell death is observed in the majority of hearing and balance disorders, affecting the health of more than 600 million people worldwide. While normal aging is the single greatest contributor, exposure to environmental toxins and therapeutic drugs such as aminoglycoside antibiotics and antineoplastic agents are significant contributors. Genetic variation contributes markedly to differences in normal disease progression during aging and in susceptibility to ototoxic agents. Using the lateral line system of larval zebrafish, we developed an in vivo drug toxicity interaction screen to uncover genetic modulators of antibiotic-induced hair cell death and to identify compounds that confer protection. We have identified 5 mutations that modulate aminoglycoside susceptibility. Further characterization and identification of one protective mutant, sentinel (snl), revealed a novel conserved vertebrate gene. A similar screen identified a new class of drug-like small molecules, benzothiophene carboxamides, that prevent aminoglycoside-induced hair cell death in zebrafish and in mammals. Testing for interaction with the sentinel mutation suggests that the gene and compounds may operate in different pathways. The combination of chemical screening with traditional genetic approaches is a new strategy for identifying drugs and drug targets to attenuate hearing and balance disorders.
Pubmed ID: 18454195 RIS Download
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Database of zebrafish genome.
View all literature mentionsSoftware for Next-Generation DNA sequencing, Sanger DNA analysis, and RNA sequencing. It contains sequence analysis tools which include reference-guided alignments, de novo assembly, variant calling, and SNP analyses. It has integrated the Cufflinks suite for in-depth transcript analysis and differential gene expression of RNA-Seq data.
View all literature mentionsA free package of software programs for inferring phylogenies (evolutionary trees). The source code is distributed (in C), and executables are also distributed. In particular, already-compiled executables are available for Windows (95/98/NT/2000/me/xp/Vista), Mac OS X, and Linux systems. Older executables are also available for Mac OS 8 or 9 systems.
View all literature mentionsSoftware to graphically browse results of clustering and other analyses from Cluster.
View all literature mentionsMus musculus with name CBA/CaJ from IMSR.
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