Retinal protein-transport discovery may help define new strategies for treating eye disease Study reveals how proteins from the eye's nerve cells relay visual cues to different parts of the brain
August 21, 2019
LA JOLLA, CA Many forms of vision loss stem from a common source: impaired communication between the eye and the brain. And at the root of all eye-to-brain communication are the hundreds of proteins generated by the retina's nerve cells.
A new study in Cell Reports examines these proteins in unprecedented detail, providing surprising new insights into how visual signals are distributed to different regions of the brain. The results are an important first step in understanding and eventually treating vision loss from glaucoma, multiple sclerosis or even trauma. More than 3.3 million Americans aged 40 years and older are either legally blind or have visual impairments that can't be corrected with today's interventions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Proteins are usually the targets of drugs so if you want to design a drug that will help communication between the eye and the brain, it helps to know what proteins those drugs would target, says Hollis Cline, PhD, co-chair of Scripps Research's Department of Neuroscience, who led the research project. This type of study was never possible before because it wasn't feasible to see how these proteins move around the brain. The technology didn't exist.
To create the technology, Cline's lab worked closely with the lab of John Yates III, PhD, a Scripps Research chemist who has pioneered new ways to use an analytical technique known as mass spectrometry to study proteins and their functions. Using this new method developed over the course of several years Cline's team was able to label about 1,000 different types of proteins that originate in the eye's retinal ganglion cells, and then watch how and where they travel in a living brain of a rat. Just as in human brains, the proteins are transported via neuronal axons, which are long, threadlike nerve fibers that extend from the eye into the brain via the optic nerve.
The brain is an ensemble of very complicated architecture, and it's hard to separate every component and study the pieces individually, says Lucio Schiapparelli, PhD, a neuroscientist in Cline's lab and a lead author of the study. Our methodology allowed us examine the visual system in a way that had not been studied before so we could observe the molecules independently and analyze their biochemistry.
Going into the study, Cline said she was curious whether similar types of proteins would travel to distinct targets within the brain. The retina projects proteins into more than 30 different areas of the central nervous system, but for the study, her team chose to evaluate the two major targets: the superior colliculus (which analyzes motion in the visual field and controls goal-directed head and eye movements), and the lateral geniculate nucleus (which analyzes the shape of objects we see and sends that information to a higher brain area, the visual cortex).
While previous studied identified various proteins produced in the retina, the ultimate destination of these proteins was largely unknown. The optic nerve was an especially important focus of study, as it is implicated in so many devastating eye diseases.
We were surprised right from the start to find proteins in the axons of the optic nerve that everybody previously thought would be functioning only in the eye, Cline says. These are proteins that are usually in the nucleus of a cell, but we found them far, far away from the nucleus, participating in some form of communication.
This finding, Cline says, has already fueled new research on how these proteins may influence health and disease. Because this type of neuronal protein exists in other parts of the body, it may play a role in other nerve-cell communication disorders such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
The optic nerve is the information highway from the eye to the brain, sending signals to different destinations. But the team discovered that that similar proteins didn't always share a common destination. Rather, many proteins were transported preferentially to one brain region, while some were transported to all of the regions studied.
Understanding the transport of these proteins out of the retina is essential to understand how the visual system functions, Cline says. This can help us study what happens when a person experiences nerve damage and vision loss and will hopefully lead us to treatments that can enhance protein transport and prevent cells from dying.
Authors of the study, The Retinal Ganglion Cell Transportome Identifies Proteins Transported to Axons and Presynaptic Compartments in the Visual System In Vivo, include Lucio M. Schiapparelli of Scripps Research; Sahil H. Shah of Scripps Research, University of California, San Diego, and Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research at Stanford University; Yuanhui Ma of Scripps Research, Daniel B. McClatchy of Scripps Research, Pranav Sharma of Scripps Research, John R. Yates III of Scripps Research, Jeffrey L. Goldberg of Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, and Hollis T. Cline of Scripps Research.
This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health [R01EY011261, R01EY027437, P30EY019005, R01MH103134], the Hahn Family Foundation [P41GM103533, R01MH067880]; the Glaucoma Research Foundation [P30EY026877], Research to Prevent Blindness, and support from the Helen Dorris Foundation.
Neuroscience Molecular and Cellular Biology Cline, Hollis Yates, John
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
29/10/2025
ESPN said it will produce animated telecasts for NFL, NHL, NBA and WNBA games across The Walt Disney Co. and ESPN platforms during the 2025-26 season under an a...
29/10/2025
WASHINGTON Despite the government shutdown, the Federal Communications Commission has passed, with some revisions, a previously announced Notice of Proposed Rul...
29/10/2025
29 10 2025 - Media release SBS, NITV and Screen Australia announce 2025 Digital Originals Shortlist
The 2025 Digital Originals shortlisted teams. Photo credit...
28/10/2025
ESPN Announces Monsters Funday Football', Its Latest Real-Time Animated Bro...
28/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Catherine Chalfant, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPNThe Ole Miss alum is an operational force behind ESPN's extensive college-football catalo...
28/10/2025
Elevating the experience: AI and data take Ryder Cup to the next level By Joe OHalloran
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - 10:25
Print This Story
NBC produced th...
28/10/2025
Conquering the Air (waves): Taking a close up look at the IBC Accelerator Priva...
28/10/2025
World Series 2025: Spectrum SportsNet LA Brings Dodgers Fans Closer to the Actio...
28/10/2025
Dylan Southern and Benedict Cumberbatch at the premiere of The Thing with Feathers (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
28/10/2025
For three weeks in Lagos, Spotify's Greasy Tunes Caf pop-up brought the cit...
28/10/2025
Once a niche subculture, German rap has evolved into an influential cultural movement. Now, Spotify is giving the genre a new home with OFFCULT, a playlist dedi...
28/10/2025
Shane Delia's Malta serves up the Mediterranean this summer
28 October, 2025
Media releases
Feast on 9,000 years of culinary history Mondays from 24 No...
28/10/2025
SBS's global sporting festival continues with the FIVB Beach Volleyball Worl...
28/10/2025
Bilbao, October 28, 2025 - AgileTV, a leading technology solutions company for t...
28/10/2025
Disney, NBCUniversal, FOX, Paramount Each Achieve Double-Digit Monthly Growth
...
28/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has announced an agreement to sell WRTV, its local ABC-affiliated station in Indianapolis, to Circle City Broadcasting for $...
28/10/2025
Berklee College of Music and Berklee Valencia Named to Billboards 2025 Top Music...
28/10/2025
NEW YORK As AI usage continues to spike, a new study from IAB delves into an important aspect of how AI is transforming the advertising business with new data s...
28/10/2025
Charlie Jablonski, a broadcast tech pioneer who helped shape the modern era of Olympics television coverage, died Oct. 25 at his home in Lake George N.Y., the N...
28/10/2025
VIENNA, Austria Bitmovin has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insights into video playback. The so...
28/10/2025
LOS ANGELES LucidLink, the file streaming platform, has announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities at Adobe Max....
28/10/2025
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced that it has joined the Ama...
28/10/2025
Lightware, an industry leader in connectivity and signal management solutions, has announced a major update to its Taurus
platform, which now delivers flawless...
28/10/2025
Following a successful mid-September International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, Hiltron Communications will promote its full range of satellite communi...
28/10/2025
Open Broadcast Systems has chosen MC&S (Media Consulting & Services) as a reseller to help strengthen its presence in France.
With over twenty years of experi...
28/10/2025
Bitmovin, leading provider of video streaming solutions, has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insi...
28/10/2025
Ease Live, the leader in interactive TV technology, today announced the successful launch of interactive graphical overlays for UEFA Champions League matches fo...
28/10/2025
LucidLink, the file streaming platform, today at Adobe MAX announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities, streamlining collaboration and hel...
28/10/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has promoted Nick Hasenecz to general manager of WNDU, its NBC affiliate in the South Bend-Elkhart, Ind., market....
28/10/2025
Applications Open for Berklee Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant Boston nonprofits can apply by December 12 for funding to support community projects that ...
28/10/2025
Governments everywhere are racing to harness the power of AI - but legacy infras...
28/10/2025
AI is moving from the digital world into the physical one. Across factory floors...
28/10/2025
NVIDIA is delivering the telecom industry a major boost in open-source software for building AI-native 5G and 6G networks.
NVIDIA Aerial software will soon be ...
28/10/2025
The race to bottle a star now runs on AI.
NVIDIA, General Atomics and a team of international partners have built a high-fidelity, AI-enabled digital twin for ...
28/10/2025
Along the Pacific Ocean in Monterey, California, the Naval Postgraduate School (...
28/10/2025
To democratize access to AI technology nationwide, AI education and deployment c...
28/10/2025
Leading technology companies in aerospace and automotive are accelerating their ...
28/10/2025
28 Oct 2025
VEON's JazzCash Wins Silver Award for Innovation in Lending at ...
28/10/2025
Guests include Wayne Rooney, Maya Jama, Dame Laura Kenny, Chloe Kelly, Chris McC...
28/10/2025
The two-hour special, recorded live from the iconic Dolby Theatre in LA, will ai...
28/10/2025
Eutelsat upgrades teleports with Rohde & Schwarz satellite uplink amplifiers High efficiency and resilient Ku-band amplifiers for excellent RF performance
...
28/10/2025
These appointments come at a pivotal time for ABC, as the organisation continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of a digital-first media ecosystem. The ne...
28/10/2025
Scripps Research awarded $4 million to advance platform for neurodevelopmental disorders The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) grant support...
27/10/2025
You can touch this: Haptics becoming central to the virtual live experience By Adrian Pennington
Friday, October 24, 2025 - 09:12
Print This Story
The vid...
27/10/2025
A tale of two trailers: France's Stop & Go doubles up with its new hybrid tr...
27/10/2025
Pro Padel League Stages City's Cup Finals Inside NYC's Hammerstein Ballr...
27/10/2025
World Series 2025: Sportsnet Delivers Made-in-Canada' Moment for a Nation U...
27/10/2025
ESPN Extends Partnership With Sony's Beyond Sports To Expand Animated Altern...
Retinal protein-transport discovery may help define new strategies for treating eye disease Study reveals how proteins from the eye's nerve cells relay visual cues to different parts of the brain 
