OPTOGENETICS: FUNDAMENTAL AND APPLIED ASPECTS

The paper is devoted to optogenetics as a method that allows the cells of an organism to acquire light sensitivity. The history of the origin and development of optogenetics is briefly reviewed. The role of optogenetics in studying both the fundamental mechanisms of brain functions and in understanding the mechanisms of a number of neurological and psychiatric diseases, including those associated with memory loss, is discussed.

The real field of clinical application of optogenetics methods to date, namely in ophthalmology, is discussed in detail. Clinical trials have shown the principal possibility of optogenetic prosthetics of “blind” retina and partial restoration of visual functions. Data on one of the four ongoing clinical trials, its success and limitations are presented. The conditions and prospects for further development of optogenetic prosthetic technologies for blind retina in the last stages of the neurodegenerative process are discussed in detail. The question of the type of nerve cells in the degenerating retina most promising for optogenetic prosthetics is discussed. The authors believe that genes of visual, G-protein-binding rhodopsins (most likely cones), which trigger the enzymatic cascade of light signal amplification, are the most promising for optogenetic prosthetics. The use of genes of genetically modified channel rhodopsins as “tools” for optogenetic prosthetics of degenerative retina is undoubtedly possible and, as clinical trials show, quite realistic.