Prolonged alcohol consumption has been considered as an important risk factor for various diseases. Chronic ethanol (EtOH) intake is associated with deleterious effects on brain functions culminating in robust behavioral changes. Notably, drugs available to treat the effects of EtOH have low therapeutic efficacy so far. Taurine (TAU) appears as a promising neuroprotective molecule due to its pleiotropic action in the brain. Here, we investigated whether TAU plays a beneficial role in different behavioral domains of zebrafish submitted to an intermittent EtOH exposure model, specially focusing on social behavior, anxiety-like responses, and memory. Moreover, since monoamines play a role in EtOH-mediated responses, we also evaluated the influence of both TAU and EtOH exposures on brain monoamine oxidase (Z-MAO) activity. Fish were exposed to non-chlorinated water or 1% EtOH for 8 consecutive days (20 min per day). From the 5th day until the end of the experimental period (8th day), animals were kept in the absence or presence of TAU (42, 150, or 400 mg/L) 1 h per day immediately after EtOH exposure. Behavioral measurements started 24 h after the last EtOH exposure. We observed that TAU showed modest attenuating effects on shoaling behavior and anxiety-like responses, while 42 and 150 mg/L TAU abolished the memory acquisition deficit in the inhibitory avoidance task. Biochemical analysis revealed that TAU did not modulate EtOH-induced increase on brain Z-MAO activity. Collectively, our novel data show a potential beneficial effect of TAU in an intermittent EtOH exposure model in zebrafish. Moreover, these findings foster the growing utility of this aquatic species to investigate the neurobehavioral basis of EtOH- and TAU-mediated responses in vertebrates.

长期饮酒被认为是各种疾病的重要危险因素。慢性乙醇 (EtOH) 摄入与对大脑功能的有害影响有关，最终导致强烈的行为变化。值得注意的是，目前可用于治疗 EtOH 影响的药物的疗效很低。牛磺酸 (TAU) 因其在大脑中的多效作用而成为一种有前途的神经保护分子。在这里，我们调查了 TAU 在提交给间歇性 EtOH 暴露模型的斑马鱼的不同行为领域中是否发挥有益作用，特别关注社交行为、焦虑样反应和记忆。此外，由于单胺在 EtOH 介导的反应中起作用，我们还评估了 TAU 和 EtOH 暴露对脑单胺氧化酶 (Z-MAO) 活性的影响。鱼连续 8 天（每天 20 分钟）暴露在非氯化水或 1% 乙醇中。从第 5 天到实验期结束（第 8 天），在 EtOH 暴露后立即将动物保持在不存在或存在 TAU（42、150 或 400 mg/L）的情况下每天 1 小时。行为测量在最后一次 EtOH 暴露后 24 小时开始。我们观察到 TAU 对浅滩行为和焦虑样反应表现出适度的减弱作用，而 42 和 150 mg/L TAU 消除了抑制性回避任务中的记忆获取缺陷。生化分析显示 TAU 不调节 EtOH 诱导的脑 Z-MAO 活性增加。总的来说，我们的新数据显示了 TAU 在斑马鱼间歇性 EtOH 暴露模型中的潜在有益作用。而且，