Journal of Biological Chemistry
Volume 287, Issue 3, 13 January 2012, Pages 1642-1648
Journal home page for Journal of Biological Chemistry

Minireviews
Loss of Daylight Vision in Retinal Degeneration: Are Oxidative Stress and Metabolic Dysregulation to Blame?*

https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.R111.304428Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Retinitis pigmentosa is characterized by loss of night vision, followed by complete blindness. Over 40 genetic loci for retinitis pigmentosa have been identified in humans, primarily affecting photoreceptor structure and function. The availability of excellent animal models allows for a mechanistic characterization of the disease. Metabolic dysregulation and oxidative stress have been found to correlate with the loss of vision, particularly in cones, the type of photoreceptors that mediate daylight and color vision. The evidence that these problems actually cause loss of vision and potential therapeutic approaches targeting them are discussed.

Gene Therapy
Metabolism
Oxidative Stress
Photoreceptors
Retinal Degeneration

Cited by (0)

1

Postdoctoral Fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

*

This work was supported by the Foundation for Retinal Research, the Thome Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Foundation Fighting Blindness (to C. L. C.) and by the University of Massachusetts (to C. P.). This is the fifth article in the Thematic Minireview Series on Focus on Vision.

3

The abbreviations used are:

    RP

    retinitis pigmentosa

    ROS

    reactive oxygen species

    RPE

    retinal pigment epithelium

    OS

    outer segment(s)

    mTOR

    mechanistic target of rapamycin

    AAV

    adeno-associated virus.