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Questions about the role of P3HT nanoparticles in retinal stimulation

Nature Nanotechnology volume 16, pages 1330–1332 (2021)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 09 December 2021

The Original Article was published on 29 June 2020

This article has been updated

arising from Maya-Vetencourt et al. Nature Nanotechnologyhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-0696-3 (2020)

Maya-Vetencourt et al.1 recently reported that poly[3-hexylthiophene] nanoparticles (P3HT NPs) injected in the subretinal space of the rat model of retinal dystrophy (the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) model)) “mediate light-evoked stimulation of retinal neurons and persistently rescue visual function”. The article also reported that the light-evoked stimulation of retinal neurons is electrical in nature and is mediated by a capacitive coupling between the NPs and the cell membrane. To support these claims, the authors performed a series of experiments that demonstrated the P3HT NPs induced a cellular response in vitro, a retinal response ex vivo and rescue the visual functions in vivo. However, a number of inconsistencies throughout the article cast doubt on these results and their interpretation, as outlined below.

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  • 14 January 2022

    The version of this article originally published was a proof. It has now been replaced by the final version of the article.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology and Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Daniel Palanker

  2. Bioelectronics Materials and Devices Laboratory, Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

    Eric Daniel Głowacki

  3. Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland

    Diego Ghezzi

Authors
  1. Daniel Palanker
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  2. Eric Daniel Głowacki
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  3. Diego Ghezzi
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Contributions

All the authors co-wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Palanker.

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Competing interests

D.P. is a consultant to Pixium Vision, a company that develops a photovoltaic retinal prosthesis. His patents about this technology are licensed to Pixium Vision by Stanford University. E.D.G. and D.G. declare no competing interests.

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Peer review informationNature Nanotechnology thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Palanker, D., Głowacki, E.D. & Ghezzi, D. Questions about the role of P3HT nanoparticles in retinal stimulation. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 1330–1332 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-021-01044-6

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