Psychoactive drugs discharged into the environment have different effects on the behavior of vertebrates. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of venlafaxine on the behavior of zebrafish, and whether melatonin could reverse the induction of venlafaxine. In this study, a series of venlafaxine concentrations (1 μg/L, 10 μg/L, 100 μg/L) was used to treat zebrafish embryos from 2 hours post-fertilization (hpf) to 5dpf. We found that venlafaxine (1 μg/L) can stimulate the growth of the head area, eye area, and body length of zebrafish. The light-dark test showed that venlafaxine (1 μg/L) could increase the activity of zebrafish larvae. What's more, venlafaxine (1 μg/L) upregulated the expression of steroid regulatory factors including steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (star), cytochrome P450 family member 11A1 (cyp11a1) and 11 β hydroxylase (cyp11b1) by cAMP-pCREB pathway, affecting the function of the steroidogenic cells, which might be involved in the increased cortisol levels in zebrafish larvae. Whereas, melatonin (230 μg/L) restored the altered locomotion behavior induced by venlafaxine and recovered the altered gene expression. Our results demonstrate that venlafaxine at levels detected in the aquatic environment impacts behavior and may compromise the adaptive responses to the environment in zebrafish larvae.

释放到环境中的精神药物对脊椎动物的行为有不同的影响。本研究的目的是评估文拉法辛对斑马鱼行为的影响，以及褪黑激素是否可以逆转文拉法辛的诱导作用。在这项研究中，一系列文拉法辛浓度（1 μg/L、10 μg/L、100 μg/L）用于处理受精后 2 小时 (hpf) 至 5dpf 的斑马鱼胚胎。我们发现文拉法辛 (1 μg/L) 可以刺激斑马鱼头部、眼部和体长的生长。明暗试验表明文拉法辛（1 μg/L）可提高斑马鱼幼虫的活性。更重要的是，文拉法辛（1 μg/L）上调了类固醇调节因子的表达，包括类固醇生成急性调节蛋白（star)、细胞色素 P450 家族成员 11A1 ( cyp11a1 ) 和 11 β 羟化酶 ( cyp11b1 ) 通过 cAMP-pCREB ​​途径影响类固醇生成细胞的功能，这可能与斑马鱼幼虫皮质醇水平升高有关。而褪黑激素 (230 μg/L) 恢复了文拉法辛诱导的运动行为改变并恢复了改变的基因表达。我们的结果表明，在水生环境中检测到的文拉法辛会影响行为，并可能损害斑马鱼幼虫对环​​境的适应性反应。