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The heat-shock response co-inducer arimoclomol protects against retinal degeneration in rhodopsin retinitis pigmentosa.

Parfitt, DA; Aguila, M; McCulley, CH; Bevilacqua, D; Mendes, HF; Athanasiou, D; Novoselov, SS; ... Cheetham, ME; + view all (2014) The heat-shock response co-inducer arimoclomol protects against retinal degeneration in rhodopsin retinitis pigmentosa. Cell Death Dis , 5 , Article e1236. 10.1038/cddis.2014.214. Green open access

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Abstract

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of inherited diseases that cause blindness due to the progressive death of rod and cone photoreceptors in the retina. There are currently no effective treatments for RP. Inherited mutations in rhodopsin, the light-sensing protein of rod photoreceptor cells, are the most common cause of autosomal-dominant RP. The majority of mutations in rhodopsin, including the common P23H substitution, lead to protein misfolding, which is a feature in many neurodegenerative disorders. Previous studies have shown that upregulating molecular chaperone expression can delay disease progression in models of neurodegeneration. Here, we have explored the potential of the heat-shock protein co-inducer arimoclomol to ameliorate rhodopsin RP. In a cell model of P23H rod opsin RP, arimoclomol reduced P23H rod opsin aggregation and improved viability of mutant rhodopsin-expressing cells. In P23H rhodopsin transgenic rat models, pharmacological potentiation of the stress response with arimoclomol improved electroretinogram responses and prolonged photoreceptor survival, as assessed by measuring outer nuclear layer thickness in the retina. Furthermore, treated animal retinae showed improved photoreceptor outer segment structure and reduced rhodopsin aggregation compared with vehicle-treated controls. The heat-shock response (HSR) was activated in P23H retinae, and this was enhanced with arimoclomol treatment. Furthermore, the unfolded protein response (UPR), which is induced in P23H transgenic rats, was also enhanced in the retinae of arimoclomol-treated animals, suggesting that arimoclomol can potentiate the UPR as well as the HSR. These data suggest that pharmacological enhancement of cellular stress responses may be a potential treatment for rhodopsin RP and that arimoclomol could benefit diseases where ER stress is a factor.

Type: Article
Title: The heat-shock response co-inducer arimoclomol protects against retinal degeneration in rhodopsin retinitis pigmentosa.
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/cddis.2014.214
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2014.214
Language: English
Additional information: © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved 2041-4889/14. Cell Death and Disease is an open-access journal published by Nature Publishing Group. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce thematerial. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Institute of Ophthalmology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Department of Neuromuscular Diseases
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1430927
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