Puf-A and related compounds for treatment of retinopathies and sight-threatening ophthalmologic disorders

1. A method for expressing a Puf-A gene in an ocular cell, the method comprising:

providing at least a portion of a Puf-A gene suitable for expression of a Puf-A therapeutic protein;

incorporating the gene into a vector;

transfecting the vector into at least one ocular cell; and

expressing at least the portion of the therapeutic Puf-A protein in the at least one ocular cell.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ocular cell is from a human or animal subject having a retinal disease selected from the group consisting of progressive ganglion cell degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, retinal ischemia, Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, open angle glaucoma, and glaucoma.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vector is a viral vector selected from the group consisting of adeno-associated viral vector, adenoviral vector, retroviral vector, herpes viral vector, parvoviral vector, and lentiviral vector.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising: transfecting at least one of human retinal cell or retinal progenitor cells with the vector.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

providing a recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) carrying a nucleic acid sequence encoding the normal Puf-A gene product, an active polypeptide fragment thereof, an analog thereof or a peptidomimetic thereof, under the control of a promoter sequence which expresses the product of the gene in the ocular cells;

administering to the subject by a subretinal, intravitreal, topical, subconjunctival, retrobulbar, periocular, suprachoroidal, or intraocular route an amount of the recombinant AAV sufficient to express an effective amount of the normal Puf-A gene product, an active polypeptide fragment thereof, an analog thereof or a peptidomimetic thereof in the ocular cells and thereby treating the retinal disease.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the human or animal subject is characterized by a defect or absence of a normal Puf-A gene in ocular cells.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the AAV vector infects ganglion and photoreceptor cells with high efficiency.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the promoters are cell-specific promoters.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein expression of the normal Puf-A gene product, an active polypeptide fragment thereof, an analog thereof or a peptidomimetic thereof in an ocular cell of a subject, binds an RNA corresponding to a gene selected from the group consisting of zgc:193933, prdmla, spata2, texlO, rbb4, ddx3, zp2.2 and HtrA2 RNA.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the AAV is a recombinant AAV having a cap-region from AAV type (1) and a rep-region from AAV type (2).

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vector is a non-viral vector.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the non-viral vector is a liposome-mediated delivery vector.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the retinal disease is caused by a mutation in the normal Puf-A gene.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the retinal disease is caused by overexpression or hyperactivity of a binding target of the normal Puf-A gene product.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the binding target of the Puf-A gene product is selected from the group consisting of zgc:193933, prdmla, spata2, texlO, rbb4, ddx3, zp2.2 and HtrA2.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vector is suitable for delivery to a mammal by ocular injection, intravitreolar injection, retinal injection, or subretinal injection.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein binding of the Puf-A gene product to the binding target inhibits a gene involved in apoptosis.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the target gene is caspase 3.