Добавил:
kiopkiopkiop18@yandex.ru t.me/Prokururor I Вовсе не секретарь, но почту проверяю Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз: Предмет: Файл:
Ординатура / Офтальмология / Английские материалы / Glaucoma An Open Window to Neurodegeneration and Neuroprotection_Nucci, Cerulli, Osborne_2008.pdf
Скачиваний:
0
Добавлен:
28.03.2026
Размер:
30.63 Mб
Скачать

C. Nucci et al. (Eds.)

Progress in Brain Research, Vol. 173

ISSN 0079-6123

Copyright r 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

CHAPTER 30

Assessment of neuroprotection in the retina with DARC

Li Guo1 and M. Francesca Cordeiro1,2,

1Glaucoma & Retinal Degeneration Research Group, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK

2The Glaucoma Research Group, Western Eye Hospital, London, UK

Abstract: Currently, assessment of new drug efficacy in glaucoma relies on conventional perimetry to monitor visual field changes. However, visual field defects cannot be detected until 20–40% of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the key cells implicated in the development of irreversible blindness in glaucoma, have been lost. We have recently developed a new, noninvasive real-time imaging technology, which is named DARC (detection of apoptosing retinal cells), to visualize single RGC undergoing apoptosis, the earliest sign of glaucoma. Utilizing fluorescently labeled annexin 5 and confocal laser scanning ophthalmoscopy, DARC enables evaluation of treatment effectiveness by monitoring RGC apoptosis in the same living eye over time. Using DARC, we have assessed different neuroprotective therapies in glaucoma-related animal models and demonstrated DARC to be a useful tool in screening neuroprotective strategies. DARC will potentially provide a meaningful clinical end point that is based on the direct assessment of the RGC death process, not only being useful in assessing treatment efficacy, but also leading to the early identification of patients with glaucoma. Clinical trials of DARC in glaucoma patients are due to start in 2008.

Keywords: DARC; RGC apoptosis; glaucoma; neuroprotection; glutamate modulation; targeting Ab pathway; coenzyme Q10

Introduction

Glaucoma is the major cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and visual loss is attributed to retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death — a hallmark of glaucoma. Glaucoma is commonly linked with raised intraocular pressure (IOP), which has previously been implicated as a major cause of RGC death. Lowering IOP is currently the only clinical therapy available for glaucoma treatment, with an estimated cost of $5 billion annually in

Corresponding author. Tel./Fax: +44 207 608 6938; E-mail: M.Cordeiro@ucl.ac.uk

America alone by 2011 (Lee et al., 2006). However, pressure-lowering strategies have been shown to be inadequate in the prevention of progressive glaucomatous damage (Collaborative Normal-Tension Glaucoma Study Group, 1998; Oliver et al., 2002). This has provoked much research in non-IOP- lowering strategies, i.e., neuroprotective approaches in glaucoma management.

Currently, the most widely advocated neuroprotective agents in the prevention of RGC death are modifiers of the glutamate pathway, as this, somewhat controversially, is implicated in the development of glaucomatous RGC death (Dreyer et al., 1996; Lipton, 2004b; Guo et al., 2006). Memantine, an NMDA antagonist that has FDA

DOI: 10.1016/S0079-6123(08)01130-8

437