Discovery of a New Compound May Be the Answer To Reversing Vision Loss

Researchers from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) have identified a compound that could possibly pave the way for developing therapies that can reverse vision loss among premature babies and adults.

This new study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, wherein the discovery of these scientists could be the answer to the treatment of various eye diseases including retinopathy of prematurity and diabetic retinopathy.

Senior author of the study Courtney Griffin, Ph.D., is confident that even those with advanced disease progression could see a change in their fortune.

(Photo: pixabay)

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When Does Vision Loss Start?

Most of the visual problems occur when there is an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the tissue lining the back of the eye. This results in the formation of a web of blood vessels that will block the amount of light reaching the retina. This formation of pathological neovascular tufts causes vision issues that can progress to total blindness.

The current therapeutic options for treating ocular diseases include antiangiogenic strategies, which can also inhibit normal vascular development. In order to spare the normal blood vessels, scientists needed to find new strategies to eliminate these pathological neovascular tufts.

Retinopathy in premature babies is usually caused by the high oxygen levels in NICU incubators, which can cause an interruption in the normal vessel development in the eye. Although it usually resolves naturally over time, that is not often the case. It is during these scenarios that there will be irreversible vision damage, like that in adult diseases such as diabetic retinopathy.

Discovery of the New Compound

Chris Schafer, Ph.D., studied how blood vessels developed and thought that by analyzing a different set of blood vessels in mice that naturally regress and disappear after birth, they may have an idea on how to thin this tangle of blood vessels.

When they studied newborn mice who experienced normal blood vessel loss in the eye, the OMRF researchers found that levels of a specific class of cellular proteins crashed.

Based on this study, Dr. Schafer hypothesized that these cellular proteins might function as an important 'off switch' in eliminating these vessels in a neonatal model. 

According to Griffin, this new discovery could mean approaching these diseases in a new way as the current methods, which are both invasive or needed life-long eye injections, only prevents disease advancement and often results in serious complications.

These researchers identified a class of proteins called E-26 transformation-specific (ETS) transcription factors that are downregulated during normal vessel regression.

Through this experimental compound, Schafer said that he was able to flip the switch and tricked the blood vessels in the mice into thinking they were supposed to be regressing and naturally dying off.

The good thing was that the compound only affected those blood vessels with slow blood flow, sparing the normal vessels needed in a healthy eye.

These findings paved the way for tailored therapies to reversing vision loss and may also contribute to shrinking tumors that contain abnormal blood vessels in other parts of the body.

Based on this study, scientists have confirmed that the development of these abnormal blood vessels among premature babies is actually susceptible to being treated. They will continue to study the compound in models of adult eye diseases, but they believe that this is a major advancement in the treatment of vision loss in patients of all ages.

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