Therapy Reactivates the Cone Cell’s Ability to Interact with the rest of the Visual System
The retina is the light sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. It is a complex, layered structure with several layers of neurons interconnected by synapses. The only neurons sensitive to light are the photoreceptors. These are grouped into two types: the cones and the rods. The signals from the rods and cones undergo complex processing by other neurons in the retina and are sent to the visual centers of the brain through the optic nerve.
Abstract: Introducing halorhodopsin into the remaining but nonfunctional cone photoreceptors of the retina of mice not only reactivates the cone cells' ability to interact with the rest of the visual system, it also prompts sophisticating visually guided behavior. With their collaborators in the Vision Institute of Paris, scientists from NIBR's Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) restored vision in mice with retinitis pigmentosa, using an archaebacterial protein. The scientists were able to validate their results in light-insensitive human retinas in vitro, which were able to respond to light again after treatment.
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Cross section of a degenerated Retinitis pigmentosa retina. The archaebacterial halorhodopsin is produced in the remaining cone photoreceptor cells (green). Only one row of photoreceptor cells is left. In white the nuclear layers of the retina. |
Cross section of a healthy retina. The archaebacterial halorhodopsin is produced in the photoreceptor cells (green). In white the nuclear layers of the retina. Source: 2010 © FMI Basel Switzerland |
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