Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have made a significant discovery that might help to prevent vision loss in people with diabetes.
This new knowledge points towards potential treatments that can intervene before any permanent vision damage sets in.
Understanding the Problem
Diabetic retinopathy, a common issue for diabetics, happens when high blood sugar damages the retina’s cells, located at the back of the eye.
Despite managing diabetes, a notable number of people with the condition still suffer from severe vision problems linked to this complication.
Given the rising number of diabetics globally, it’s crucial to find solutions to halt this problem early on.
Why is the Retina Affected in Diabetics?
For the retina to work efficiently, it needs a rich supply of oxygen and nutrients. The eye has a complex system of blood vessels to ensure a constant blood supply, even with daily changes in blood and eye pressure.
This system’s steady maintenance is termed “blood flow autoregulation.” However, this process is disrupted early on in diabetics, which affects the retina.
The Breakthrough Discovery
The researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have identified the root cause of these initial retinal changes. They found that a protein named TRPV2 gets disrupted during diabetes.
This disruption affects blood flow autoregulation, leading to damage similar to diabetic retinopathy, even in those without diabetes.
Their findings, published in JCI Insight, might pave the way for developing new treatments, offering hope to many diabetics.
Professor Tim Curtis of the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s, expressed enthusiasm for the study’s outcomes.
He stated, “Identifying TRPV2 as a crucial protein in diabetes-related vision loss gives us a new chance to create treatments that can stop diabetic retinopathy from progressing.”
With this discovery, the hope is to soon provide people with diabetes more concrete solutions to prevent potential blindness linked to their condition.
If you care about eye health, please read studies about how to save your eyes from diabetes, and the treatments of dry eye you need to know.
For more information about eye disease, please see recent studies about how to protect your eyes from glaucoma, and results showing this eye surgery may reduce dementia risk.
The study was published in JCI Insight.
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