Nanoscope Publications Show Potential of Bioluminescent Multi-Characteristic Opsin for Monitoring and Treating Neurodegenerative Diseases

BEDFORD, Texas, Oct. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanoscope today announced two publications in Frontiers in Neuroscience of research describing how bioluminescent Muti-Characteristic Opsin (bMCOII) delivered to the brain can monitor changes in neural activities, providing feedback to modulate and restore function caused by neurodegeneration.

"Our research in mice shows how our next generation bioluminescent Multi-Characteristic Opsin (bMCO) consisting of a functional reporter can image neural activity in the visual cortex to determine retinal degeneration as well as modulate neural activities in retina or visual cortex for correcting vision loss, and image neural activities in the visual cortex to determine the treatment's effectiveness," said Samarenda Mohanty, Ph.D, Chief Scientific Officer of Nanoscope.

"Without use of external light, we are able to monitor neural activities of brain continuously using bioluminescence with cellular resolution for 14 hours showing variation of strength of sensory activation during circadian rhytm, and this new bMCO technology gives us bidirectional control to optically record abnormal neural activities in neurodisorders and modulate them with light," he added.

The research paper, titled "Bioluminescent Multi-Characteristic Opsin for Simultaneous Optical Stimulation and Continuous Monitoring of Cortical Activities," was published October 25, 2021 in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.

In another paper, titled "Monitoring Visual Cortical Activities During Progressive Retinal Degeneration Using Functional Bioluminescence Imaging," in Frontiers in Neuroscience Nanoscope experimented with bMCOII in mouse models of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The research, published October 4, 2021, showed bMCOII delivered to the visual cortex could track progression of retinal degeneration.

"These research papers in Frontiers in Neuroscience demonstrate the potential of Nanoscope's next generation MCO optogenetic platform to expand treatment to the brain for patients with neurodegenerative diseases, and we thank National Eye Institute  (NEI) for continuous support," said Sulagna Bhattacharya, CEO of Nanoscope.

This research is primarily supported by a 5-year Bioengineering research grant from NEI-NIH.  Nanoscope's lead clinical program, commercialized by Nanoscope Therapeutics,  uses proprietary ambient-light sensitive MCO optogenetic therapy platform to photosensitize retina enabling vision in people blinded by retinal degenerative diseases.

About Nanoscope Technologies LLC
Nanoscope Technologies was founded in 2009 with an objective to develop new methods and devices for scientific, industrial and biomedical applications. Nanoscope has developed a range of biomedical technologies which include diagnostics and therapeutic devices and molecules. Nanoscope has been awarded multiple NIH-SBIR phase I/II/ IIB and R01 grants.

Contact:
Sulagna Bhattacharya
[email protected]
817-719-2692

SOURCE Nanoscope

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