[Progress on study of achromatopsia and targeted gene therapy]

Achromatopsia is an early onset retinal dystrophy that causes severe visual impairment. To date, four genes have been found to be implicated in achromatopsia-associated mutations: guanine nucleotide-binding protein (GNAT2), cyclic nucleotide-gated channel alpha-3 (CNGA3), cyclic nucleotide-gated channel beta-3 (CNGB3) and phosphodiesterase 6C (PDE6C). Even with early onset, the slow progress and the good responses to gene therapy in animal models render achromatopsia a very attractive candidate for human gene therapy after the successful of the Phase I clinical trials of Leber's congenital amaurosis. With the development of molecular genetics and the therapeutic gene replacement technology, the adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector-mediated gene therapy for achromatopsia in the preclinical animal experiments achieved encouraging progress in the past years. This article briefly reviews the recent research achievements of achromatopsia with gene therapy.