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Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution

Objective. Retinal degeneration involving progressive deterioration and loss of function of photoreceptors is a major cause of permanent vision loss worldwide. Strategies to treat these incurable conditions incorporate retinal prostheses via electrically stimulating surviving retinal neurons with im...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Qian, Xuejun, Lu, Gengxi, Thomas, Biju B., Li, Runze, Chen, Xiaoyang, Shung, K. Kirk, Humayun, Mark, Zhou, Qifa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AAAS 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10521738/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37850175
http://dx.doi.org/10.34133/2022/9829316
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author Qian, Xuejun
Lu, Gengxi
Thomas, Biju B.
Li, Runze
Chen, Xiaoyang
Shung, K. Kirk
Humayun, Mark
Zhou, Qifa
author_facet Qian, Xuejun
Lu, Gengxi
Thomas, Biju B.
Li, Runze
Chen, Xiaoyang
Shung, K. Kirk
Humayun, Mark
Zhou, Qifa
author_sort Qian, Xuejun
collection PubMed
description Objective. Retinal degeneration involving progressive deterioration and loss of function of photoreceptors is a major cause of permanent vision loss worldwide. Strategies to treat these incurable conditions incorporate retinal prostheses via electrically stimulating surviving retinal neurons with implanted devices in the eye, optogenetic therapy, and sonogenetic therapy. Existing challenges of these strategies include invasive manner, complex implantation surgeries, and risky gene therapy. Methods and Results. Here, we show that direct ultrasound stimulation on the retina can evoke neuron activities from the visual centers including the superior colliculus and the primary visual cortex (V1), in either normal-sighted or retinal degenerated blind rats in vivo. The neuron activities induced by the customized spherically focused 3.1 MHz ultrasound transducer have shown both good spatial resolution of 250 μm and temporal resolution of 5 Hz in the rat visual centers. An additional customized 4.4 MHz helical transducer was further implemented to generate a static stimulation pattern of letter forms. Conclusion. Our findings demonstrate that ultrasound stimulation of the retina in vivo is a safe and effective approach with high spatiotemporal resolution, indicating a promising future of ultrasound stimulation as a novel and noninvasive visual prosthesis for translational applications in blind patients.
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spelling pubmed-105217382023-10-17 Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution Qian, Xuejun Lu, Gengxi Thomas, Biju B. Li, Runze Chen, Xiaoyang Shung, K. Kirk Humayun, Mark Zhou, Qifa BME Front Research Article Objective. Retinal degeneration involving progressive deterioration and loss of function of photoreceptors is a major cause of permanent vision loss worldwide. Strategies to treat these incurable conditions incorporate retinal prostheses via electrically stimulating surviving retinal neurons with implanted devices in the eye, optogenetic therapy, and sonogenetic therapy. Existing challenges of these strategies include invasive manner, complex implantation surgeries, and risky gene therapy. Methods and Results. Here, we show that direct ultrasound stimulation on the retina can evoke neuron activities from the visual centers including the superior colliculus and the primary visual cortex (V1), in either normal-sighted or retinal degenerated blind rats in vivo. The neuron activities induced by the customized spherically focused 3.1 MHz ultrasound transducer have shown both good spatial resolution of 250 μm and temporal resolution of 5 Hz in the rat visual centers. An additional customized 4.4 MHz helical transducer was further implemented to generate a static stimulation pattern of letter forms. Conclusion. Our findings demonstrate that ultrasound stimulation of the retina in vivo is a safe and effective approach with high spatiotemporal resolution, indicating a promising future of ultrasound stimulation as a novel and noninvasive visual prosthesis for translational applications in blind patients. AAAS 2022-02-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10521738/ /pubmed/37850175 http://dx.doi.org/10.34133/2022/9829316 Text en Copyright © 2022 Xuejun Qian et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Exclusive Licensee Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, CAS. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
spellingShingle Research Article
Qian, Xuejun
Lu, Gengxi
Thomas, Biju B.
Li, Runze
Chen, Xiaoyang
Shung, K. Kirk
Humayun, Mark
Zhou, Qifa
Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution
title Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution
title_full Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution
title_fullStr Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution
title_full_unstemmed Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution
title_short Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution
title_sort noninvasive ultrasound retinal stimulation for vision restoration at high spatiotemporal resolution
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10521738/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37850175
http://dx.doi.org/10.34133/2022/9829316
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