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A recent study, published in the April 6 issue of the journal Neuron, has found that a green algae protein can generate light sensitivity within the eyes of blind mice.1 Investigators at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, Pennsylvania College of Optometry, and Peking University in Beijing inserted the algae protein channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) into the retinal cells of mice genetically bred to lose rods and cones, the light sensitive cells in the retina.2 The retinal cells that remained after the rods and cones died became light sensitive and sent signals through the optic nerve to the visual cortex in the majority of tested mice, i.e., after they were subjected to ChR2. The light sensitivity persisted for at least 6 months.
The blindness bred into the mice for this study replicated the conditions of the blinding disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in humans. Paul Sieving, MD, PhD, director of vision research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said the study demonstrates that gene-based therapies may have the potential to restore vision to some extent in people afflicted with RP, as well as other degenerative eye diseases, at some point in the future.2 This study’s promising results, however, are quite preliminary. According to an NIH press release, it is probable that the light sensitivity regained by the mice did not result in useable vision.2 The study’s authors have suggested further experiments and technical improvements that may yield better results, in terms of vision restoration. The study was funded by the National Eye Institute of (NIH).
-Courtney Cavaliere
References
1. Bi A, Cui J, Ma Y, Olshevskaya E, Pu M, Dizhoor A, Pan Z. Ectopic expression of a microbial-type rhodopsin restores visual responses in mice with photoreceptor degeneration. Neuron. 2006;50:23-33.
2. Blind mice recover visual responses using protein from green algae [press release]. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health; April 5, 2006. Available at: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/apr2006/nei-05.htm.
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