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Optogenetics may have role in regenerative medicine
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NEW YORK — Optogenetics could be a minimally invasive alternative to using a retinal prosthesis, Marco A. Zarbin, MD, told colleagues here.
As a gene therapy in regenerative medicine, optogenetics alters neurons that are not normally light sensitive to become light sensitive.
“In principle, optogenetics has potential for minimally invasive neuron stimulation with high spatial resolution,” Zarbin said at the American Ophthalmological Society meeting.
Murine experiments in which channelrhodopsin, a green algae derived protein, was transfected into mice via an adeno-associated virus have been promising, Zarbin said. The trans-gene expression in mice was similar at 10 weeks and at 10 months, demonstrating a sustained effect of treatment.
Further murine experiments “suggest that this optogenetic therapy may actually be a general solution for regenerative medicine when it comes to photoreceptor degeneration,” Zarbin said, adding that there were a number of limitations to the experiments.
Disclosure: Zarbin is a consultant for Calhoun Vision, Imagen Biotech, Iridex, Novartis and Pfizer.