The following is a summary of the “Shedding light on myopia by studying complete congenital stationary night blindness,” published in the March 2023 issue of Retinal and eye research by Zeitz et al.

Myopia is the most common form of nearsightedness and has multiple potential origins in both genes and the environment. Extreme nearsightedness is frequently linked to rare inherited retinal disorders that progress slowly or don’t move. Eye morphogenesis, extracellular matrix organization, visual perception, circadian rhythms, and retinal signaling are just a few of the many biological processes that may be affected by genes linked to myopia. The identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in myopia-like animal models is useful for pointing to potential candidate genes involved in human myopia. 

High levels of myopia and complete congenital stationary night blindness (cCSNB) have been linked to a defect in the transmission of ON-bipolar cell signals in both human and animal models of cCSNB. It’s a great model for studying disease mechanisms and locating genes associated with myopia. Although the molecular basis for night blindness has been established, more study is required to uncover the factors predisposing people with cCSNB to develop myopia. 

They performed whole transcriptome analysis on 3 distinct cCSNB models (Gpr179^-/-/, Lrit3Gpr179^-/-, and Grm6Gpr179^-/-) to isolate previously unrecognized candidates for myopia that function as novel actors of the retinal signaling cascade. Their findings suggest novel biological/cellular processes/mechanisms that may underlie myopia development in cCSNB subjects by performing a meta-analysis of their transcriptomic data with published transcriptomic databases and genome-wide association studies from myopia cases. Insights from this study can help direct the creation of effective pharmaceutical treatments for myopia.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S135094622200115X