Human Molecular Genetics Advance Access published online on September 22, 2008
Human Molecular Genetics, doi:10.1093/hmg/ddn302
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Translational bypass of nonsense mutations in zebrafish rep1, pax2.1 and lamb1 highlights a viable therapeutic option for untreatable genetic eye disease
1 Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK 2 The Western Eye Hospital, London, NW1 5QH, UK 3 Section of Immunology and Infection 4 Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
* Corresponding Author: Dr Cheryl Y Gregory-Evans Dept of Clinical Neuroscience SAF Building Imperial College London Exhibition Road London SW7 2AZ, UK Tel: +44-20-7594-3007 Fax: +44-20-7594-3100 E-mail: c.gregory-evans{at}imperial.ac.uk
Received July 25, 2008; Revised September 16, 2008; Accepted September 16, 2008
The extensive molecular genetic heterogeneity seen with inherited eye disease is a major barrier to the development of gene-based therapeutics. The underlying molecular pathology in a considerable proportion of these diseases however are nonsense mutations leading to premature termination codons. A therapeutic intervention targeted at this abnormality would therefore potentially be relevant to a wide range of inherited eye diseases. We have taken advantage of the ability of aminoglycoside drugs to suppress such nonsense mutations and partially restore full-length, functional protein in a zebrafish model of choroideraemia (chmru848; juvenile chorio-retinal degeneration) and in two models of ocular coloboma (noitu29a and gupm189; congenital optic fissure closure defects). In vitro cell-based assays showed significant readthrough with two drugs, gentamicin and paromomycin, which was confirmed by Western blot and in vitro prenylation assays. Presence of either aminoglycoside during zebrafish development in vivo showed remarkable prevention of mutant ocular phenotypes in each model and a reduction in multisystemic defects leading to a 1.5-1.7 fold increase in survival. We also identified a significant reduction in abnormal cell death shown by TUNEL assay. To test the hypothesis that optic fissure closure was apoptosis-dependent, the anti-apoptotic agents, curcumin and zVAD-fmk, were tested in gupm189 embryos. Both drugs were found to reduce the size of the coloboma, providing molecular evidence that cell death is required for optic fissure remodelling. These findings draw attention to the value of zebrafish models of eye disease as useful pre-clinical drug screening tools in studies to identify molecular mechanisms amenable to therapeutic intervention.
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