Evaluation of nine reference compounds in a zebrafish model of cardiac function

A Zebrafish orthologue of hERG (zERG) has been identified with 99 % identity to the human sequence in the S6 and pore domains. zERG gene knock-down in zebrafish larvae results a distinctive 2:1 atrial to ventricular contraction ratio which also results from treatment with QT prolonging drugs. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of a range of compounds with different cardiovascular effects to ascertain whether the mechanistic effect of a compound could be elucidated from this assay.