ArticleNeuron2016
How Azobenzene Photoswitches Restore Visual Responses to the Blind Retina.
Article in Neuron, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Light-Activated RPE65 Inhibitors Enable On-Demand Visual Cycle Control.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Intravitreal photoswitch therapy in advanced retinitis pigmentosa: a phase 1 open-label trial.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Multimodal Photoswitchable Modulation of Insect Glutamatergic Transmission by Quaternary Ammonium Azobenzenes.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Ion Channel-Targeting Toxins: Structural Mechanisms of Activation, Inhibition, and Therapeutic Potential.Toxins · 2025Review
- External stimuli-responsive drug delivery to the posterior segment of the eye.Drug delivery · 2025Review
- Reversible single crystal photochemistry and spin state switching in a metal-cyanide complex.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Review
- ON-OFF nanopores for optical control of transmembrane ionic communication.Nature nanotechnology · 2025Article
- Computational Study on the Photo-Induced Antibiotic Activity of an Azoquinolone with Promising Applications in Photopharmacology.ChemPhotoChem · 2025Article
- Reversal in Solvatochromism, enol-imine/keto-amine Tautomerism and (Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A membrane-targeted photoswitch restores physiological ON/OFF responses to light in the degenerate retina.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Recent Progress in Regulating the Activity of Enzymes with Photoswitchable Inhibitors.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Retinoic Acid-Dependent Loss of Synaptic Output from Bipolar Cells Impairs Visual Information Processing in Inherited Retinal Degeneration.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Recent Advances in Nanomedicine for Ocular Fundus Neovascularization Disease Management.Advanced healthcare materials · 2024Review
- Light-responsive biomaterials for ocular drug delivery.Drug delivery and translational research · 2023Review
- Photochemical Restoration of Light Sensitivity in the Degenerated Canine Retina.Pharmaceutics · 2022Article
- New tricks and emerging applications from contemporary azobenzene research.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2022Article
- The Development and Application of Opto-Chemical Tools in the Zebrafish.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Regenerative and restorative medicine for eye disease.Nature medicine · 2022Review
- Retinoic acid inhibitors mitigate vision loss in a mouse model of retinal degeneration.Science advances · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Azobenzene photoswitches confer light sensitivity onto retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in blind mice, making these compounds promising candidates as vision-restoring drugs in humans with degenerative blindness. Remarkably, photosensitization manifests only in animals with photoreceptor degeneration and is absent from those with intact rods and cones. Here we show that P2X receptors mediate the entry of photoswitches into RGCs, where they associate with voltage-gated ion channels, enabling light to control action-potential firing. All charged photoswitch compounds require permeation through P2X receptors, whose gene expression is upregulated in the blind retina. Photoswitches and membrane-impermeant fluorescent dyes likewise penetrate through P2X receptors to label a subset of RGCs in the degenerated retina. Electrophysiological recordings and mapping of fluorescently labeled RGC dendritic projections together indicate that photosensitization is highly selective for OFF-RGCs. Hence, P2X receptors are a natural conduit allowing cell-type-selective and degeneration-specific delivery of photoswitches to restore visual function in blinding disease.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.