Suche
Mein Konto
Researchers discover a key process that plays a role in diabetes-related vision loss
Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have discovered a key process that contributes to vision loss and blindness in people with diabetes. The findings could lead to new treatments that can be used before irreversible vision loss occurs. Diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes and occurs when high blood sugar levels damage the cells at the back of the eye, called the retina. Beyond careful management of the diabetes itself, there are currently no treatment options that can prevent diabetic retinopathy from progressing from early to late stages. As a result, a significant proportion of people with diabetes still experience...
Researchers discover a key process that plays a role in diabetes-related vision loss
Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have discovered a key process that contributes to vision loss and blindness in people with diabetes. The findings could lead to new treatments that can be used before irreversible vision loss occurs.
Diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes and occurs when high blood sugar levels damage the cells at the back of the eye, called the retina. Beyond careful management of the diabetes itself, there are currently no treatment options that can prevent diabetic retinopathy from progressing from early to late stages. As a result, a significant proportion of people with diabetes still experience the vision-threatening complications of the disease.
As the number of people with diabetes continues to increase worldwide, there is an urgent need for new treatment strategies, particularly those that target the early stages of the disease, to prevent vision loss.
The retina requires a high supply of oxygen and nutrients to function properly. This is ensured by a sophisticated network of blood vessels that maintain a constant blood flow even with daily fluctuations in blood and eye pressure. The ability of blood vessels to maintain blood flow at a constant level is called blood flow autoregulation. Disruption of this process is one of the earliest effects of diabetes in the retina.
The breakthrough by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast identifies the cause of these early changes in the retina. The study, published in the US journal JCI Insight, found that the loss of autoregulation of blood flow in diabetes is caused by disruption of a protein called TRPV2. In addition, they show that disruption of blood flow autoregulation leads to damage very similar to that seen in diabetic retinopathy, even in the absence of diabetes.
The research team hopes these findings will be used to develop new treatments that preserve vision in people with diabetes.
We are excited about the new insights this study provides into how the retina is damaged in the early stages of diabetes.
By identifying TRPV2 as a key protein involved in diabetes-related vision loss, we have a new target and opportunity to develop treatments that halt the progression of diabetic retinopathy.”
Professor Tim Curtis, corresponding author, deputy director at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen's University Belfast
The study was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Department for the Economy Postgraduate Student Program.
Source:
Reference:
O'Hare, M., et al. (2022) Loss of TRPV2-mediated autoregulation of blood flow summarizes diabetic retinopathy in rats. JCI Insight. doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.155128.