Currently DNA from culture media cannot be used for genetic assessment because embryo-associated structures release DNA into the culture medium and the DNA is of mixed origin.

In addition to satisfying the metabolic demands of cells, mitochondrial metabolism helps regulate immune cell function. To date, such cell-intrinsic metabolic-immunologic cross-talk has only been described operating in cells of the immune system. Here we show that epidermal cells utilize fatty acid b-oxidation to fuel their contribution to the immune response during cutaneous inflammation. By live imaging metabolic and immunological processes within intact zebrafish embryos during cutaneous inflammation, we uncover a mechanism where elevated b-oxidation-fuelled mitochondria-derived reactive oxygen species within epidermal cells helps guide matrix metalloproteinase-driven leukocyte recruitment. This mechanism requires the activity of a zebrafish homologue of the mammalian mitochondrial enzyme, Immunoresponsive gene 1. This study describes the first example of metabolic reprogramming operating within a non-immune cell type to help control its contribution to the immune response. Targeting of this metabolic-immunologic interface within keratinocytes may prove useful in treating inflammatory dermatoses.

Inflammation is an important and appropriate host response to infection or injury. However, dysregulation of this response, with resulting persistent or inappropriate inflammation, underlies a broad range of pathological processes, from inflammatory dermatoses to type 2 diabetes and cancer. As such, identifying new drugs to suppress inflammation is an area of intense interest. Despite notable successes, there still exists an unmet need for new effective therapeutic approaches to treat inflammation. Traditional drug discovery, including structure-based drug design, have largely fallen short of satisfying this unmet need. With faster development times and reduced safety and pharmacokinetic uncertainty, drug repositioning – the process of finding new uses for existing drugs – is emerging as an alternative strategy to traditional drug design that promises an improved risk-reward trade-off. Using a zebrafish in vivo neutrophil migration assay, we undertook a drug repositioning screen to identify unknown anti-inflammatory activities for known drugs. By interrogating a library of 1280 approved drugs for their ability to suppress the recruitment of neutrophils to tail fin injury, we identified a number of drugs with significant anti-inflammatory activity that have not previously been characterized as general anti-inflammatories. Importantly, we reveal that the ten most potent repositioned drugs from our zebrafish screen displayed conserved anti-inflammatory activity in a mouse model of skin inflammation (atopic dermatitis). This study provides compelling evidence that exploiting the zebrafish as an in vivo drug repositioning platform holds promise as a strategy to reveal new anti-inflammatory activities for existing drugs.