Another target for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy
Doctors have learned how to prevent the onset of blindness in diabetes
An international team of doctors discovered a protein in the body of diabetics, the excess and incorrect operation of which leads to blindness, and successfully suppressed its work in the retina of mice in a test tube, according to an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Babapoor-Farrokhran et al., Angiopoietin-like 4 is a potential angiogenic factor and a novel therapeutic target for patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy).
The development of diabetes is accompanied by numerous disorders in the body, including how the vessels grow and function. Malfunctions in their work very often lead to the development of diabetic retinopathy – the destruction of the retina due to the appearance of deformed and "leaky" capillaries in it, from which blood enters the eye. According to the American Eye Institute, about half of diabetics suffer from this ailment.
Blood vessels in the retina of a patient with proliferative diabetic retinopathy – VM.
Akrit Sodhi from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) and his colleagues observed the growth of healthy and diabetic cells extracted from the capillaries of the eye in conditions of chronic or episodic lack of oxygen.
As Sodhi explains (in a press release Johns Hopkins Medicine Study Suggests a New Way of Preventing Diabetes-Associated Blindness – VM), with a lack of oxygen, retinal cells and other tissues begin to secrete a large number of molecules of vascular endothelial growth factor (vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF), forcing the body to grow new capillaries. Scientists have known about this effect for a long time, and in recent years several drugs have been created that protect the eyes of diabetics by suppressing VEGF.
Such medications slow down the development of retinopathy, but do not stop it, which prompted Sodhi and his colleagues to check whether there are any other factors contributing to the development of the disease.
As shown by the experiments of diabetologists, the vessels began to grow even in cases when scientists added liquid extracted from the eyes of diabetics with an extremely low concentration of VEGF in the blood to the test tube. The reason for this growth was another signaling protein – angiopoietin-4, which is also involved in the appearance of new vessels.
When scientists blocked his work, vascular growth stopped abruptly, which gives hope that doctors will be able to create a drug in the coming years that will simultaneously suppress the work of both VEGF and angiopoietin-4. Such medications, according to Sodhi, may be useful not only for diabetics, but also for people suffering from macular degeneration, destruction of the retina for reasons unrelated to diabetes.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru29.05.2015