Seeking a cure for an inherited disease that causes blindness in over one million people worldwide, Dartmouth Medical School researchers have discovered a critical role for zinc in retinitis pigmentosa. The amount of zinc, a trace metal naturally absorbed by the body, can determine whether a key protein for vision functions normally or misfolds, they found. An inability to successfully bind zinc to rhodopsin, a light receptor protein in the eye, can trigger retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative disease that leaves many patients legally blind by the age of 40. The findings parallel similar progress in harnessing essential trace metals in the body to treat several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The research, appearing as the “Paper of the Week” in the August 20 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC), is the first confirmation that zinc is present and plays a significant role in the normal folding and functions of rhodopsin, and if defective, leads to retinal degeneration.
