ABSTRACT
An appropriate model to predict the effect of xenobiotics on the vision perception in neuropsychopharmacological studies is of great importance in drug development and toxicity studies. The present study evaluated the effect of CNS stimulant, depressant and therapeutic agents known to have ocular toxicity on optomotor response (OMR) using goldfish in a newly developed device. A digital light processing aided gyrating poly-chromatic dotted pattern-OMR (Gyro-dot-OMR) analyzer was developed and standardized for this study in our laboratory. Goldfishes were exposed to varying concentrations of caffeine and pentobarbitone sodium to evaluate the effect of CNS stimulation and depression on OMR in white light. Ethambutol induced ocular toxicity was evaluated by intravitreal injection into both eyes of goldfishes. They were subjected for polychromatic Gyro-dot-OMR in both clock and anticlockwise directions. At the low concentration (5, 10 and 20 ng/mL) caffeine exposed animals showed significant (p<0.05) stimulant effect and the EC50 of caffeine in goldfish was found to be 4.806 ng/mL. In contrast, pentobarbitone sodium treated fishes showed significant (p<0.05) depressant effect with increasing the concentration. Ethambutol toxicity was reflected by the color discrimination in the Gyro-dot-OMR pattern. For the first time, this model proved the possibility of running Irwin profile test on goldfish using Gyro-dot-OMR. This model successfully predicted ethambutol induced toxicity with poor discrimination of red-green color. This model can be used for predicting toxicity of drugs affecting vision perception.