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Engineered Proteins Restore Light Sensitivity To Animals

Date:
October 21, 2009
Source:
Society for Neuroscience
Summary:
Engineered, light-sensitive molecules introduced into a blind rodent's eye resulted in vision, according to results from an interdisciplinary collaboration between numerous labs. The results could lead to treatments for people with inherited, blinding eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, which affects one in every 3,000 individuals.
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Engineered, light-sensitive molecules introduced into a blind rodent's eye resulted in vision, according to results from an interdisciplinary collaboration between numerous labs. The results could lead to treatments for people with inherited, blinding eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, which affects one in every 3,000 individuals.

The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

In past studies, researchers made a blind animal's visual cells respond to light by introducing a light-sensitive algae protein into the eye. This new study manipulates existing proteins that our brains normally use to transmit information between neurons, and makes them light sensitive.

The researchers focused on several light-sensitive proteins, each with its own unique properties that could be fine- tuned to meet researchers' specific needs. One such engineered protein, LiGluR (Light Activated Glutamate Receptor), can turn neuronal activity on and off upon illumination with specific wavelengths of light. There are many glutamate receptors in the human brain, but they are not normally light sensitive.

"Our approach was to build on these initial studies, to 're-engineer nature,' by solving a deficit with engineered light-sensitive proteins," said Natalia Caporale, PhD, at the University of California Berkeley, the study's first author. "This approach could prove to be a viable therapeutic option for people who have lost significant vision and are in the late stages of retinal degeneration," she said.

Compared with naturally occurring photosensitive proteins, LiGluR can initiate larger and longer-lasting responses in neurons, making it a promising candidate for treatments intended to restore vision.

Research was supported by the Nanomedicine Development Center for the Optical Control of Biological Function and the Foundation Fighting Blindness.


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Cite This Page:

Society for Neuroscience. "Engineered Proteins Restore Light Sensitivity To Animals." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 October 2009. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021014732.htm>.
Society for Neuroscience. (2009, October 21). Engineered Proteins Restore Light Sensitivity To Animals. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021014732.htm
Society for Neuroscience. "Engineered Proteins Restore Light Sensitivity To Animals." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021014732.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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