Researchers Examine Potential Immunotherapy Option for Diabetic Retinopathy

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences and Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center are studying a new treatment in which anti-ceramide immunotherapy can address the root cause of diabetic retinopathy and stop progression toward blindness at an earlier stage than previous treatments.

Julia Busik, PhD, professor and chair of the department of biochemistry and physiology in collaboration with Richard Kolesnick, MD of MSK Cancer Center, recently published a paper detailing the research in the journal Cell Metabolism.

“With the rise in diabetes, there's a rise in complications. One-third of adults over age 40 with diabetes have retinopathy,” said Dr. Busik. “If left untreated, diabetic retinopathy can lead to blindness. Losing vision is one of the most feared complications for patients with diabetes.”

Continuing research that she began at Michigan State University, Dr. Busik has taken a closer look at lipids, specifically lipid pathways in the retina, and how they are affected by diabetes. She and her team found that a certain, very damaging type of lipid, or ceramide, was present in the eyes of patients with diabetic retinopathy. In turn, they discovered that these ceramides, after stimulation by inflammatory cytokines, stick together into large domains that cause damaging inflammatory signals to cells in the eye. This causes cell death and the progression of diabetic retinopathy.

Read the full OU article here.