Chromophore supply modulates cone function and survival in retinitis pigmentosa mouse models.

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an ocular disease characterized by the loss of night vision, followed by the loss of daylight vision. Daylight vision is initiated in the retina by cone photoreceptors, which are gradually lost in RP, often as bystanders in a disease process that initiates in their neighboring rod photoreceptors. Using physiological assays, we investigated the timing of cone electroretinogram (ERG) decline in RP mouse models. A correlation between the time of loss of the cone ERG and the loss of rods was found. To investigate a potential role of the visual chromophore supply in this loss, mouse mutants with alterations in the regeneration of the retinal chromophore, 11-cis retinal, were exam- ined. Reducing chromophore supply via mutations in Rlbp1 or Rpe65 resulted in greater cone function and survival in a RP mouse model. Conversely, overexpression of Rpe65 and Lrat, genes that can drive the regeneration of the chromophore, led to greater cone degeneration. These data suggest that abnormally high chromophore supply to cones upon the loss of rods is toxic to cones, and that a potential therapy in at least some forms of RP is to slow the turnover and/or reduce the level of visual chromophore in the retina

Synthesis and structures of two thiocyanato-lanthanoid cages

The cages [{La2(NCS)5(NCMe)6}2O]·MeCN and [{Eu2(NCS)5(NCMe)5}2O]·MeCN have been prepared by redox transmetallation between the lanthanoid metals and mercuric thiocyanate in acetonitrile. The structure of the former has a core of four La atoms bonded to a central oxygen atom. Two La atoms are nine coordinate being bonded to oxygen, four terminal MeCN ligands and four N-bridged thiocyanato ligands, whereas the other two are eight coordinate being bonded to oxygen, the four bridging thiocyanato ligands, two terminal acetonitrile molecules, and a terminal N-bonded thiocyanate ion. In the Eu complex, there is a similar core of four Ln atoms bound to a central oxygen atom, but all Eu atoms are eight coordinate, and have four N-bridged thiocyanate ligands. Two have three MeCN ligands, whilst the other two have one terminal NCS− and two acetonitrile ligands