A New Promoter Allows Optogenetic Vision Restoration with Enhanced Sensitivity in Macaque Retina.
Mol Ther
; 25(11): 2546-2560, 2017 11 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28807567
ABSTRACT
The majority of inherited retinal degenerations converge on the phenotype of photoreceptor cell death. Second- and third-order neurons are spared in these diseases, making it possible to restore retinal light responses using optogenetics. Viral expression of channelrhodopsin in the third-order neurons under ubiquitous promoters was previously shown to restore visual function, albeit at light intensities above illumination safety thresholds. Here, we report (to our knowledge, for the first time) activation of macaque retinas, up to 6 months post-injection, using channelrhodopsin-Ca2+-permeable channelrhodopsin (CatCh) at safe light intensities. High-level CatCh expression was achieved due to a new promoter based on the regulatory region of the gamma-synuclein gene (SNCG) allowing strong expression in ganglion cells across species. Our promoter, in combination with clinically proven adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2), provides CatCh expression in peri-foveolar ganglion cells responding robustly to light under the illumination safety thresholds for the human eye. On the contrary, the threshold of activation and the proportion of unresponsive cells were much higher when a ubiquitous promoter (cytomegalovirus [CMV]) was used to express CatCh. The results of our study suggest that the inclusion of optimized promoters is key in the path to clinical translation of optogenetics.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Degeneração Retiniana
/
Regiões Promotoras Genéticas
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Recuperação de Função Fisiológica
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Channelrhodopsins
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Vetores Genéticos
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Mol Ther
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR
/
TERAPEUTICA
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
França