Ophthalmic research
ZeClinics provides preclinical CRO services to evaluate drugs targeting ophthalmic disorders such as diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, stargardt disease, etc. Our ophthalmic diseases experts are ready to partner with you at the early stages of drug and target discovery, providing innovative zebrafish in vivo models to shorten your product’s time to market.
Zebrafish solutions for accelerating ophthalmic preclinical research.
ZeClinics' preclinical ophthalmic research team has extensive experience, ranging from genetic manipulation, disease model generation, and phenotype-based drug screening. Zebrafish genetic models are customized for an accurate characterization of the biological function of genes. Efficacy and safety screenings are conducted in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.
WHY ZEBRAFISH?
The zebrafish eye is a suitable paradigm for investigating human ophthalmological disorders. Zebrafish facilitate early developmental studies and single-cell-resolution retinal characterization, while allowing screening of compounds potentially accelerating retinal recovery or protecting from retinal damage.
Zebrafish mirrors human eye pathology better than rodents due to its:
- Large eye size, which allows easy eye manipulation and intravitreal (IV) injection of the compounds.
- Retinal neurogenesis and eye development conserved with mammals.
- High anatomic retinal conservation: zebrafish share retinal architecture with humans (3 nuclear layers separated by 2 plexiform layers) and have a similar structure of photoreceptor types.
- High functional retinal conservation: zebrafish share with humans the 5 main neuronal cell types and Müller glial cells and have a human-like cone-dominant vision.
- Regenerative capacity: they have a life-long replacement of neural retina cell types upon injury.
HOW CAN WE HELP YOU?
Our preclinical ophthalmic research services are developed to help you addressing:
Disease modeling
Generation of custom genetic models of human eye disorders.
Target validation
Use of genetic models to understand gene biological function in a given condition.
Compound screening
Efficacy and toxicity evaluation in drug discovery.
Preclinical Ophthalmic Research Capabilities
All these analyzes can be applied to study different ophthalmic indications such as diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, stargardt disease, etc.
Ready-to-use Ophthalmic Model
ZeClinics ophthalmic experts have developed a human-relevant model for Dry-Age-related Macular Degeneration (Dry-AMD) studies through light-induced retinal degeneration. This ready-to-use model is well suited for identifying either preventive or therapeutic Dry-AMD treatments.
Neural Retina Protection Assay
For efficacy evaluation of compounds with potential capacity to protect from degeneration of retinal photoreceptors.
Neural Retina Regeneration Assay
For efficacy evaluation of compounds with potential capacity to enhance regeneration of photoreceptors in the retina.
References
- Cocchiaro P, Di Donato V, Rubbini D, Mastropasqua R, Allegretti M, Mantelli F, Aramini A, Brandolini L. Intravitreal Administration of rhNGF Enhances Regenerative Processes in a Zebrafish Model of Retinal Degeneration. Front Pharmacol. 2022 Mar 7;13:822359.
- Di Donato V, De Santis F, Albadri S, Auer TO, Duroure K, Charpentier M, Concordet JP, Gebhardt C, Del Bene F. An Attractive Reelin Gradient Establishes Synaptic Lamination in the Vertebrate Visual System. Neuron. 2018 Mar 7;97(5):1049-1062.e6.
Get the milestone data you need to make important decisions in the early stages of drug discovery. Contact us to learn more about ZeClinics’ preclinical ophthalmic research services and how we can help accelerate your R&D process.
View our Ophthalmic research services
ZeEfficacy
Retinal Degeneration Model
ZeTox
DevTox – Developmental Toxicology