PUBLICATION

A novel nanoluciferase transgenic reporter measures proteinuria in zebrafish

Authors
Naylor, R.W., Lemarie, E., Jackson-Crawford, A., Davenport, J.B., Mironov, A., Lowe, M., Lennon, R.
ID
ZDB-PUB-220622-39
Date
2022
Source
Kidney International   102(4): 815-827 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Lennon, Rachel, Lowe, Martin, Naylor, Richard
Keywords
Alport syndrome, Zebrafish, basement membrane, glomerulus, proteinuria, proximal tubule, type IV collagen
MeSH Terms
  • Angiotensin II/metabolism
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Captopril/metabolism
  • Cisplatin
  • Gentamicins/metabolism
  • Humans
  • Kidney Glomerulus/metabolism
  • Nephritis, Hereditary*/genetics
  • Nephrotic Syndrome
  • Proteinuria/drug therapy
  • Proteinuria/genetics
  • Proteinuria/metabolism
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine/metabolism
  • Zebrafish*/genetics
PubMed
35716957 Full text @ Kidney Int.
Abstract
The zebrafish is an important animal system for modelling human diseases. This includes kidney dysfunction as the embryonic kidney (pronephros) shares considerable molecular and morphological homology with the human nephron. A key clinical indicator of kidney disease is proteinuria, but a high-throughput readout of proteinuria in the zebrafish is currently lacking. To remedy this, we used the Tol2 transposon system to generate a transgenic zebrafish line that uses the fabp10a liver-specific promoter to over-express a nanoluciferase molecule fused with the D3 domain of Receptor-Associated-Protein (a type of molecular chaperone) which we term NL-D3. Using a luminometer, we quantified proteinuria in NL-D3 zebrafish larvae by measuring the intensity of luminescence in the embryo medium. In the healthy state, NL-D3 is not excreted, but when embryos were treated with chemicals that affected either proximal tubular reabsorption (cisplatin, gentamicin) or glomerular filtration (angiotensin II, Hanks Balanced Salt Solution, Bovine Serum Albumin), NL-D3 is detected in fish medium. Similarly, depletion of several gene products associated with kidney disease (nphs1, nphs2, lrp2a, ocrl, col4a3, and col4a4) also induced NL-D3 proteinuria. Treating col4a4 depleted zebrafish larvae (a model of Alport syndrome) with captopril reduced proteinuria in this system. Thus, our findings validate the use of the NL-D3 transgenic zebrafish as a robust and quantifiable proteinuria reporter. Hence, given the feasibility of high-throughput assays in zebrafish, this novel reporter will permit screening for drugs that ameliorate proteinuria, thereby prioritizing candidates for further translational studies.
Errata / Notes
This article is corrected by ZDB-PUB-240107-9.
Genes / Markers
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping