Non-selective expression of short-wavelength cone opsin improves learning in mice with retinal degeneration in a visually guided task

Here, we explore the potential of an animal opsin non-selectively expressed in various neuronal elements of the degenerative retina to restore impaired visual function. In this study, a knockout murine model of inherited retinal distrophy was used. Animals were injected intravitreally with either a virus carrying gene of the short-wavelength cone opsin associated with a reporter fluorescent protein, or a control virus carrying the sequence of a modified fluorescent protein that had an enhanced membrane tropism. The viral transduction induced pronounced opsin expression in ganglion, bipolar, and horizontal retinal neurons. Behavioral testing of the treated mice in the visually guided task in the trapezoid Morris water maze showed a partial recovery of learning ability in animals whose retinas had been transduced with the cone opsin.