Cone-Enriched Cultures from the Retina of Chicken Embryos to Study Rod to Cone Cellular Interactions.

Human daytime vision relies on the function of cone photoreceptors at the center of the retina, the fovea. Patients suffering from the most prevalent form of inherited retinal degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, lose night vision because of mutation driven loss of rod photoreceptors, a phenomenon followed by a progressive loss of function and death of cones leading to blindness. Geneticists have identified many genes with mutations causing this disease, but the first mutations identified questioned the mechanisms of secondary cone degeneration and how a dominant mutation in the rhodopsin gene encoding for the visual pigment expressed exclusively in rods can trigger cone degeneration.

A Splice Variant in Gene Leads to Lactate Transport Deficit in Human iPS Cell-Derived Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a blinding disease for which most of the patients remain untreatable. Since the disease affects the macula at the center of the retina, a structure specific to the primate lineage, rodent models to study the pathophysiology of AMD and to develop therapies are very limited. Consequently, our understanding relies mostly on genetic studies highlighting risk alleles at many loci.

Discovery of a Novel and Selective Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase (IDO-1) Inhibitor 3-(5-Fluoro-1H-indol-3-yl)pyrrolidine-2,5-dione (EOS200271/PF-06840003) and Its Characterization as a Potential Clinical Candidate.

Tumors use tryptophan-catabolizing enzymes such as indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO-1) to induce an immunosuppressive environment. IDO-1 is induced in response to inflammatory stimuli and promotes immune tolerance through effector T-cell anergy and enhanced Treg function. As such, IDO-1 is a nexus for the induction of a key immunosuppressive mechanism and represents an important immunotherapeutic target in oncology.