New methods for glaucoma treatment

• Glaucoma is the main cause of blindness

  
  

• At present, the only way to treat primary congenital glaucoma is surgery

• New treatments are urgently needed to slow down the vision loss of both types of glaucoma

Chicago News, a study conducted by Northwestern Medicine in mice has identified new treatment targets for glaucoma, including the prevention of a severe form of glaucoma in children, and the discovery of a possible treatment for the most common glaucoma in adults New type

For people with high intraocular pressure glaucoma, the fluid in the eyes cannot be discharged normally, which puts pressure on the optic nerve and causes vision loss

Although there are some of the most common adult glaucoma used to treat open-angle glaucoma (eye drops, oral medication, laser treatment), primary congenital glaucoma can only be treated with surgery

"Although primary congenital glaucoma is much rarer than open-angle glaucoma, it is devastating for children," said the corresponding author, Dr.

Through gene editing, the scientists in the study developed a new model of glaucoma in mice, similar to primary congenital glaucoma

The research was published in the journal Nature Communications on October 18

Quaggin said the next step is to develop a suitable delivery system for the new protein that successfully treats patients and put it into production

In addition, scientists use bioinformatics and single-cell RNA sequence data to understand and identify the pathway of glaucoma.

Quaggin said: "It would be great to have a treatment that promotes the remodeling and/or growth of the defective Schlemm’s tube to treat glaucoma

"We hope that this research can lead the first targeted therapy to effectively promote the flow of (aqueous) fluid from the front of the eye and reverse the potential biological defects of glaucoma patients

Nature Communications

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