The discovery of the role of<unk>  in non-image forming vision has led to a growth in optogenetics. This field has shown promise in clinical applications, including the treatment of human eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and diabetes. A missense mutation in<unk> , P10L, has been implicated in 5% of patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). This is a condition in which people experience depressive thoughts in the winter due to decreased available light. Additionally, a<unk>  based receptor has been linked to migraine pain. Restoration of vision There has been recent research on the role of<unk>  in optogenetic therapy for patients with the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Reintroducing functional<unk>  into the eyes of mice with retinal degeneration restores the pupillary light reflex (PLR). These same mice could also distinguish light stimuli from dark stimuli and showed increased sensitivity to room light. The higher sensitivity demonstrated by these mice shows promise for vision restoration that may be applicable to humans and human eye diseases. Control of sleep/wake patterns<unk>  may aid in controlling sleep cycles and wakefulness. Tsunematsu and colleagues created transgenic mice that expressed<unk>  in hypothalamic orexin neurons. With a short 4-second pulse of blue light (guided by optical fibers), the transgenic mice could successfully transition from slow-wave sleep (SWS), which is commonly known as "deep sleep," to long-lasting wakefulness. After switching off the blue light, the hypothalamic orexin neurons showed activity for several tens of seconds. It has been shown that rods and cones play no role in the onset of sleep by light, distinguishing them from ipRGCs and<unk> . This provides strong evidence that there is a link between ipRGCs in humans and alertness, particularly with high frequency light (e.g. blue light). Therefore,<unk>  can be used as a therapeutic target for controlling the sleep-wake cycle. Regulation of blood glucose levels In a paper published by Ye and colleagues in 2011,<unk>  was utilized to create an optogenetic synthetic transcription device that was tested in a therapeutic setting to produce Fc-glucagon-like peptide 1 (Fc-GLP-1), a fusion protein that helps control blood glucose levels in mammals with Type II Diabetes. The researchers subcutaneously implanted mice with microencapsulated transgenic HEK 293 cells that were cotransfected with two vectors including the<unk>  gene and the gene of interest under an NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells) promoter, respectively. It is through this engineered pathway that they successfully controlled the expression of Fc-GLP-1 in doubly recessive diabetic mice and reduced hyperglycemia, or high blood glucose levels, in these mice. This shows promise for the use of<unk>  as an optogenetic tool for the treatment of Type II diabetes.
Melanopsin
Neuropeptide
Neuropil
Agouti-related peptide
Autochaperone
Bryostatin
Neurohormone
Proopiomelanocortin