Zebrafish as a model for inflammation and drug discovery

• Zebrafish are a useful tool for screening new drugs for inflammation. • This teleost shares several inflammatory mediators and receptors with mammals. • The real-time evaluation of cell migration is an advantage of zebrafish. • It permits the screening of compound libraries in a whole organism. • The creation of mutant strains reinforces zebrafish use in inflammation research. Zebrafish is a small teleost (bony) fish used in many areas of pharmacology and toxicology. This animal model has advantages for the discovery of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as the potential for real-time assessment of cell migration mechanisms. Additionally, zebrafish display a repertoire of inflammatory cells, mediators, and receptors that are similar to those in mammals, including humans. Inflammatory disease modeling in either larvae or adult zebrafish represents a promising tool for the screening of new anti-inflammatory compounds, contributing to our understanding of the mechanisms involved in chronic inflammatory conditions. In this review, we provide an overview of the characterization of inflammatory responses in zebrafish, emphasizing its relevance for drug discovery in this research area. This article presents an overview of the potential advantages of zebrafish use for the discovery of new anti-inflammatory drugs.