In May 2025, Henri Leinonen attended the ARVO Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. ARVO is the world’s largest and most influential conference for vision research. It brings together more than 10,000 scientists and clinicians each year to discuss advances in eye and vision science, spanning genetics, retinal biology, imaging, neuroprotection, and therapeutic innovation. Henri contributed to the meeting with two presentations, showcasing both mechanistic and translational directions of the Leinonen Retina Laboratory.
Mini-Symposium Talk: Resuscitating retinal function using systems pharmacology
Henri delivered an invited talk in the Restoring the Retina session, presenting a systems pharmacology strategy that uses clinically approved GPCR-acting drugs (the TMB combination) to rebalance Ca²⁺ and cAMP signaling in degenerating retinas.
Key points included:
- TMB improves cone and rod function across multiple retinitis pigmentosa (RP) models
- Monotherapies fail, while the combination consistently works
- TMB reduces lipid peroxidation in rd10 mice and improves visual behavior in Rpe65⁻/⁻ mice
Henri highlighted drug repurposing as a fast-track translational route for mutation-agnostic retinal therapies.
Poster Presentation: The outer retina in young P23H mice overexpresses critical components of synaptic transmission
Henri also presented new data showing that early-stage RP-P23H rod photoreceptors upregulate genes associated with SNARE-complex proteins and vesicle-release machinery. These results support the idea that retinal degeneration triggers active synaptic remodeling, not just passive decline.
Photo credits: Frans Vinberg