Purpose: To analyze the protective effect of PARP inhibitors on light-damaged retina and explore its possible mechanism from the perspective of ciliopathy.
Methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed to investigate the protection of PARP inhibition on light-damaged cilia. PubMed database was retrieved to find the relevant studies and 119 literatures were involved in the review.
Results: In retina, the outer segment of photoreceptor is regarded as a special type of primary cilium, so various retinal diseases actually belong to a type of ciliopathy. The retina is the only central nervous tissue exposed to light, but poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), as a nuclear enzyme repairing DNA breaks, is overactivated during the light-induced DNA damage, and is involved in the cell death cascade. Studies show that both ATR and phosphorylated Akt colocalize with cilium and play an important role in regulating ciliary function. PARP may function at ATR or PI3K/Akt signal to exert protective effect on cilia.
Conclusion: PARP inhibitors may protect the cilia/OS of photoreceptor during light-induced damage, which the possible mechanism may be involved in the activation of ATR and PI3K/Akt signal.
Keywords: ATR; Ciliary; Light-induced damage; PARP; PI3K/Akt.