Manisha Anand

• University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

Mutations in RPGR (retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator) cause severe retinal ciliopathy, X-linked retinitis pigmentosa. Although two major alternatively spliced isoforms, RPGRex1-19 and RPGRORF15 are expressed, the relative importance of these isoforms in disease pathogenesis is unclear. Here, we analyzed fibroblast samples from eight patients an...

Developing suitable medicines for genetic diseases requires a detailed understanding of not only the pathways that cause the disease, but also the identification of the genetic components involved in disease manifestation. This article focuses on the complexities associated with ocular ciliopathies - a class of debilitating disorders of the eye cau...

Mutations in the ORF15 exon of the RPGR gene cause a common form of X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, which often results in severe loss of vision. In dogs and mice, gene augmentation therapy has been shown to arrest the progressive degeneration of rod and cone photoreceptors. However, the distribution of potentially treatable photoreceptors across th...

Ciliary trafficking defects underlie the pathogenesis of severe human ciliopathies, including Joubert Syndrome (JBTS), Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, and some forms of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Mutations in the ciliary protein RPGR (retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator) are common causes of RP-associated photoreceptor degeneration worldwide. While previo...

Ciliary trafficking defects underlie the pathogenesis of severe human ciliopathies, including Joubert Syndrome (JBTS), Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, and some forms of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Mutations in the ciliary protein RPGR (retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator) are common causes of RP-associated photoreceptor degeneration worldwide. While previo...

Mutations in RPGR(ORF15) (retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator) are a major cause of inherited retinal degenerative diseases. RPGR(ORF15) (1152 residues) is a ciliary protein involved in regulating the composition and function of photoreceptor cilia. The mutational hotspot in RPGR(ORF15) is an unusual C-terminal domain encoded by exon ORF15, which...

Cilia regulate several developmental and homeostatic pathways that are critical to survival. Sensory cilia of photoreceptors regulate phototransduction cascade for visual processing. Mutations in the ciliary protein RPGR (retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator) are a prominent cause of severe blindness disorders due to degeneration of mature photore...

Retina is a neurosensory tissue lining the back of the eye and is responsible for light detection and relaying the signal to the visual cortex in the brain. Mammalian retina consists of six major types of neurons (including photoreceptors; rods and cones) and one type of glial cells arranged in distinct layers. Photoreceptors are the most abundant...

Purpose: Mutations in the cilia-centrosomal protein of centrosomal protein of 290 kDa (CEP290) result in severe ciliopathies, including autosomal recessive early onset childhood blindness disorder Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA). The Cep290(rd16) (retinal degeneration 16) mouse model of CEP290-LCA exhibits accumulation of CEP290-interacting prote...

Purpose: Mutations in the CEP290 gene are a frequent cause of childhood blindness disorder, Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA). Not much is known about the mode of action of CEP290 in the retina. We previously showed that CEP290 interacts with RKIP and that RKIP protein is abnormally accumulated in rd16 (retinal degeneration 16) mouse, a model of Cep...

Introduction: Primary cilia are microtubule-based extensions of the plasma membrane in nearly all cell types. In vertebrate photoreceptors, the sensory cilium develops as outer segment (OS) that contains the photopigment rhodopsin and other proteins necessary for phototransduction. The distinct composition of proteins and lipids in the OS membrane...