Henri Leinonen
Academy Research Fellow
Research Director
Doctor of Pharmacy
Adjunct Professor (neuropharmacology)
School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences
henri.leinonen@uef.fi | +358 50 430 3196
My laboratory´s research focuses on two projects: (1) Homeostatic plasticity in the retina, its molecular mechanisms and implications for functional adaptation; (2) investigation of a novel drug repurposing-strategy for the treatment of retinal degenerations (RD). We use the retina as a model tissue for plasticity, pharmacology and drug discovery research for several reasons, such as amenability for noninvasive imaging due to eye’s transparency, finely layered structure and well-characterized structure-function relationships, functional similarity to that of brain due to same neurodevelopmental origin. Arguably, the retina is the best-characterized neuronal system in the body.
I detected retinal adaptability to sensory defect in year 2013 and our first paper related to this was published in 2020 (Leinonen et al., eLife). Next, we aim to solve the molecular pathways enabling retinal homeostatic plasticity. This knowledge will help to find mechanisms how the CNS adapts to injury and malfunction and can guide pharmacotherapies.
Our drug discovery program uses repurposed GPCR drugs. We have shown that a treatment with a combination therapy comprised of three GPCR-drugs slows progressive RD. The next crucial task is to uncover the therapeutic mechanisms of our therapy. This will facilitate further development of the treatment concept and can launch innovative drug development pipelines.
Research groups
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1 itemsPublications
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A combination treatment based on drug repurposing demonstrates mutation-agnostic efficacy in pre-clinical retinopathy models
Leinonen, Henri; Zhang, Jianye; Occelli, Laurence M; Seemab, Umair; Choi, Elliot H; LP Marinho, Luis Felipe; Querubin, Janice; Kolesnikov, Alexander V; Galinska, Anna; Kordecka, Katarzyna; Hoang, Thanh; Lewandowski, Dominik; Lee, Timothy T; Einstein, Elliott E; Einstein, David E; Dong, Zhiqian; Kiser, Philip D; Blackshaw, Seth; Kefalov, Vladimir J; Tabaka, Marcin; Foik, Andrzej; Petersen-Jones, Simon M; Palczewski, Krzysztof. 2024. Nature communications. 15: . 5943 -
Metabolic characteristics of transmembrane prolyl 4-hydroxylase (P4H-TM) deficient mice
Ala-Nisula, Tuulia; Halmetoja, Riikka; Leinonen, Henri; Kurkela, Margareta; Lipponen, Henna-Riikka; Sakko, Samuli; Karpale, Mikko; Salo, Antti M; Sissala, Niina; Röning, Tapio; Raza, Ghulam S; Mäkelä, Kari A; Thevenot, Jérôme; Herzig, Karl-Heinz; Serpi, Raisa; Myllyharju, Johanna; Tanila, Heikki; Koivunen, Peppi; Dimova, Elitsa Y. 2024. Pflugers archiv: european journal of physiology. 476: 1339-1351 -
Sex-Specific Early Retinal Dysfunction in Mutant TDP-43 Transgenic Mice
Gao, Ju; Leinonen, Henri; Wang, Evan J; Ding, Mao; Perry, George; Palczewski, Krzysztof; Wang, Xinglong. 2024. Journal of Alzheimer's disease. 97: 927-937 -
Synthesis and Biological Analysis of Iso-dimethyltryptamines in a Model of Light-Induced Retinal Degeneration
Pazur, Ethan J; Kalatanova, Anna; Tasker, Nikhil R; Vainionpää, Katri; Leinonen, Henri; Wipf, Peter. 2024. Acs medicinal chemistry letters. 15: 1049-1056 -
Stress resilience-enhancing drugs preserve tissue structure and function in degenerating retina via phosphodiesterase inhibition
C Luu, Jennings; Saadane, Aicha; Leinonen, Henri; H Choi, Elliot; Gao, Fangyuan; Lewandowski, Dominik; Halabi, Maximilian; . Sander, Christopher; Wu, Arum; Wang, Jacob M; Singh, Rupesh; Gao, Songqi; Lessieur, Emma M; Dong, Zhiqian; Palczewska, Grazyna; Mullins, Robert .; Peachey, Neal S; Kiser, Philip D; Tabaka, Marcin; Kern, Timothy S; Palczewski, Krzysztof. 2023. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 120: . e2221045120 -
Editorial: Regulation of inflammation and metabolism in retinal neurodegenerative disorders
Leinonen, Henri; Zhou, Tianwei Ellen; Ballios, Brian G.; Kauppinen, Anu; Fu, Zhongjie. 2022. Frontiers in neuroscience. 16: . 1102385 -
In vivo base editing rescues cone photoreceptors in a mouse model of early-onset inherited retinal degeneration
Choi, Elliot H; Suh, Susie; Foik, Andrzej T; Leinonen, Henri; Newby, Gregory A; Gao, Xin D; Banskota, Samagya; Hoang, Thanh; Du, Samuel W; Dong, Zhiqian; Raguram, Aditya; Kohli, Sajeev; Blackshaw, Seth; Lyon, David C; Liu, David R; Palczewski, Krzysztof. 2022. Nature communications. 13: -
Inhibition of ceramide accumulation in AdipoR1–/– mice increases photoreceptor survival and improves vision
Lewandowski, Dominik; Foik, Andrzej T.; Smidak, Roman; Choi, Elliot H.; Zhang, Jianye; Hoang, Thanh; Tworak, Aleksander; Suh, Susie; Leinonen, Henri; Dong, Zhiqian; Pinto, Antonio F.M.; Tom, Emily; Luu, Jennings; Lee, Joan; Ma, Xiuli; Bieberich, Erhard; Blackshaw, Seth; Saghatelian, Alan; Lyon, David C.; Skowronska-Krawczyk, Dorota; Tabaka, Marcin; Palczewski, Krzysztof. 2022. JCI insight. 7: . e156301 -
Neural and Müller glial adaptation of the retina to photoreceptor degeneration
Leinonen, Henri O; Fu, Zhongjie; Bull, Edward. 2022. Neural regeneration research. 2023; 18: 701-707 -
Retinoid therapy restores eye-specific cortical responses in adult mice with retinal degeneration
Huh, Carey YL; Leinonen, Henri; Nakayama, Taylor; Tomasello, Julia R; Zhang, Jianye; Zeitoun, Jack; Peach, John P; Halabi, Maximilian; Kiser, Jianying Z; Palczewski, Krzysztof; Kiser, Philip D; Gandhi, Sunil P. 2022. Current biology. 32: 4538-4546.e5