Changing the scale and efficiency of chemical warfare countermeasure discovery using the zebrafish

As the number of potential chemical warfare agents grows and as the diversity of potential threat scenarios expands with nonstate actors, so a need for innovative approaches to countermeasure development has emerged. In the last few years, the utility of the zebrafish as a model organism that is amenable to high-throughput screening has become apparent and this system has been applied to the unbiased discovery of chemical warfare countermeasures. This review summarizes the in vivo screening approaches that have been used in the countermeasure discovery arena, and highlights the successes to date as well as the potential challenges in moving the field forward. Importantly, the zebrafish platform for countermeasure discovery offers a rapid response system for the development of antidotes to the continuous stream of emerging chemical warfare agents.