Glaucoma is a chronic neurodegener-ative disorder characterized by progressive damage and loss of retinal ganglion cells （RGCs）. It is considered one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the olde...Glaucoma is a chronic neurodegener-ative disorder characterized by progressive damage and loss of retinal ganglion cells （RGCs）. It is considered one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the older population. There are estimates that glaucoma will affect 80 million individuals worldwide by the end of this de-cade, and yet we are still not able to identify the signals and the mechanisms that trigger this neurodegenerative disease. Various hypotheses have been generated to ad-dress the causes of the progressive RGC death that char-acterizes the disease. Age and increased intraocular pres-sure （IOP） have been established as the main risk factors for the development of glaucoma. Recent studies have identifed additional factors that play a role in the patho-genesis of this complex multifactorial disease, including infammation, oxidative stress, vascular dysregulation, disrupted axonal transport of neurotrophic factors, and the release of neurotoxic agents such as glutamate, nitric oxide and free radicals. The currently approved therapies for glaucoma that seek to reduce IOP, including medica-tions, laser treatment, and surgery, are unable to reliably stop RGC loss and functional impairment. Considering the signifcant personal, medical and socio-economic im-pacts of glaucoma as a leading cause of blindness, there is a pressing need for new innovative treatment strategies. Here we focus on the role of neuroinfammation in glau-coma and the opportunities that new fndings in this area have for the development of future therapeutics.展开更多
文摘Glaucoma is a chronic neurodegener-ative disorder characterized by progressive damage and loss of retinal ganglion cells （RGCs）. It is considered one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the older population. There are estimates that glaucoma will affect 80 million individuals worldwide by the end of this de-cade, and yet we are still not able to identify the signals and the mechanisms that trigger this neurodegenerative disease. Various hypotheses have been generated to ad-dress the causes of the progressive RGC death that char-acterizes the disease. Age and increased intraocular pres-sure （IOP） have been established as the main risk factors for the development of glaucoma. Recent studies have identifed additional factors that play a role in the patho-genesis of this complex multifactorial disease, including infammation, oxidative stress, vascular dysregulation, disrupted axonal transport of neurotrophic factors, and the release of neurotoxic agents such as glutamate, nitric oxide and free radicals. The currently approved therapies for glaucoma that seek to reduce IOP, including medica-tions, laser treatment, and surgery, are unable to reliably stop RGC loss and functional impairment. Considering the signifcant personal, medical and socio-economic im-pacts of glaucoma as a leading cause of blindness, there is a pressing need for new innovative treatment strategies. Here we focus on the role of neuroinfammation in glau-coma and the opportunities that new fndings in this area have for the development of future therapeutics.
