Researchers Discover Therapeutic Target to Aid in Glaucoma Treatment
Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have identified a new therapeutic target that could lead to more effective treatment of glaucoma, according to an article posted on the university website.
In a newly published paper in Communications Biology, researchers found neurons use mitochondria for a steady source of energy, and restoring mitochondrial homeostasis in the diseased neurons can protect the optic nerve cells from being damaged.
The research team, led by Michelle Surma and Kavitha Anbarasu from the Department of Ophthalmology, used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with and without glaucoma as well as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) engineered human embryonic stem cells with glaucoma mutation. Using stem cell differentiated retinal ganglion cells (hRGCs) of the optic nerve, electron microscopy and metabolic analysis, researchers identified glaucomatous retinal ganglion cells suffer mitochondrial deficiency with more metabolic burden on each mitochondrion. This leads to mitochondrial damage and degeneration.