Impacts of loperamide on zebrafish microbiota

Animal-associated microbiomes dynamically offset perturbations by chemical stress, antibiotics, or disease by altering their composition and function. Loperamide, an opioid-receptor agonist, reduces intestinal peristalsis to induce constipation and is a widely prescribed drug for treating acute diarrhea in humans. Although loperamide is also used as a tool to study the impact of bowel dysfunction in animal models, its effect on host-associated microbiota is poorly characterized. Here we used a conventional larval zebrafish model to study the consequence of loperamide administration on microbiota in vivo.