scholarly journals Integrated Approaches to Drug Discovery for Oxidative Stress-Related Retinal Diseases

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhei Nishimura ◽  
Hideaki Hara

Excessive oxidative stress induces dysregulation of functional networks in the retina, resulting in retinal diseases such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. Although various therapies have been developed to reduce oxidative stress in retinal diseases, most have failed to show efficacy in clinical trials. This may be due to oversimplification of target selection for such a complex network as oxidative stress. Recent advances in high-throughput technologies have facilitated the collection of multilevel omics data, which has driven growth in public databases and in the development of bioinformatics tools. Integration of the knowledge gained from omics databases can be used to generate disease-related biological networks and to identify potential therapeutic targets within the networks. Here, we provide an overview of integrative approaches in the drug discovery process and provide simple examples of how the approaches can be exploited to identify oxidative stress-related targets for retinal diseases.

Planta Medica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (17) ◽  
pp. 1292-1303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Martínez-Solís ◽  
Nuria Acero ◽  
Francisco Bosch-Morell ◽  
Encarna Castillo ◽  
María Eugenia González-Rosende ◽  
...  

AbstractLike other tissues of the central nervous system, the retina is susceptible to damage by oxidative processes that result in several neurodegenerative disease such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, ischaemic retinal disease, retinal disease produced by light oxidation, and detached retina, among other diseases. The use of antioxidant substances is a solution to some health problems caused by oxidative stress, because they regulate redox homeostasis and reduce oxidative stress. This is important for neurodegeneration linked to oxidation processes. In line with this, Ginkgo biloba is a medicinal plant with excellent antioxidant properties whose effects have been demonstrated in several degenerative processes, including retinal diseases associated with neurodegeneration. This review describes the current literature on the role of ginkgo in retinal diseases associated with neurodegeneration. The information leads to the conclusion that G. biloba extracts might be a good option to improve certain neurodegenerative retinal diseases, but more research is needed to determine the safety and efficacy of G. biloba in these retinal degenerative processes.


Antioxidants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 920
Author(s):  
Ayana Suzumura ◽  
Ryo Terao ◽  
Hiroki Kaneko

Oxidative stress and inflammation play crucial roles in the development and progression of retinal diseases. Retinal damage by various etiologies can result in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). n-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids and are necessary for homeostasis. They are important retinal membrane components and are involved in energy storage. n-3 fatty acids also have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and their suppressive effects against ROP, DR, and AMD have been previously evaluated. α-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and their metabolites have been shown to alleviate retinal oxidative stress and inflammation involving various biological signaling pathways. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the n-3 fatty acids effects on the mechanisms of these retinal diseases and how they exert their therapeutic effects, focusing on ALA, EPA, DHA, and their metabolites. This knowledge may provide new remedial strategies for n-3 fatty acids in the prevention and treatment of retinal diseases associated with oxidative stress and inflammation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomomi Masuda ◽  
Masamitsu Shimazawa ◽  
Hideaki Hara

Oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in developing and accelerating retinal diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy (DR), and retinal vein occlusion (RVO). An excess amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can lead to functional and morphological impairments in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), endothelial cells, and retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Here we demonstrate that edaravone, a free radical scavenger, decreased apoptotic cell death, oxidative damage to DNA and lipids, and angiogenesis through inhibiting JNK and p38 MAPK pathways in AMD, glaucoma, DR, and RVO animal models. These data suggest that the therapeutic strategy for targeting oxidative stress may be important for the treatment of these ocular diseases, and edaravone may be useful for treating retinal diseases associated with oxidative stress.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 600
Author(s):  
Gian Marco Tosi ◽  
Daniela Giustarini ◽  
Lorenzo Franci ◽  
Alberto Minetti ◽  
Francesco Imperatore ◽  
...  

Oxidative stress plays a key role in the pathophysiology of retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy, which are the major causes of irreversible blindness in developed countries. An excess of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can directly cause functional and morphological impairments in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), endothelial cells, and retinal ganglion cells. Antioxidants may represent a preventive/therapeutic strategy and reduce the risk of progression of AMD. Among antioxidants, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) is widely studied and has been proposed to have therapeutic benefit in treating AMD by mitigating oxidative damage in RPE. Here, we demonstrate that N-acetyl-L-cysteine ethyl ester (NACET), a lipophilic cell-permeable cysteine derivative, increases the viability in oxidative stressed RPE cells more efficiently than NAC by reacting directly and more rapidly with oxidizing agents, and that NACET, but not NAC, pretreatment predisposes RPE cells to oxidative stress resistance and increases the intracellular reduced glutathione (GSH) pool available to act as natural antioxidant defense. Moreover, we demonstrate the ability of NACET to increase GSH levels in rats’ eyes after oral administration. In conclusion, even if experiments in AMD animal models are still needed, our data suggest that NACET may play an important role in preventing and treating retinal diseases associated with oxidative stress, and may represent a valid and more efficient alternative to NAC in therapeutic protocols in which NAC has already shown promising results.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sankarathi Balaiya ◽  
Khaled K. Abu-Amero ◽  
Altaf A. Kondkar ◽  
Kakarla V. Chalam

Sirtuins have received considerable attention since the discovery that silent information regulator 2 (Sir2) extends the lifespan of yeast. Sir2, a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide- (NAD-) dependent histone deacetylase, serves as both a transcriptional effector and energy sensor. Oxidative stress and apoptosis are implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative eye diseases. Sirtuins confer protection against oxidative stress and retinal degeneration. In mammals, the sirtuin (SIRT) family consists of seven proteins (SIRT1–SIRT7). These vary in tissue specificity, subcellular localization, and enzymatic activity and targets. In this review, we present the current knowledge of the sirtuin family and discuss their structure, cellular location, and biological function with a primary focus on their role in different neuroophthalmic diseases including glaucoma, optic neuritis, and age-related macular degeneration. The potential role of certain therapeutic targets is also described.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 3575
Author(s):  
Ana M. Mueller-Buehl ◽  
Torsten Buehner ◽  
Christiane Pfarrer ◽  
Leonie Deppe ◽  
Laura Peters ◽  
...  

Considering the fact that many retinal diseases are yet to be cured, the pathomechanisms of these multifactorial diseases need to be investigated in more detail. Among others, oxidative stress and hypoxia are pathomechanisms that take place in retinal diseases, such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, or diabetic retinopathy. In consideration of these diseases, it is also evidenced that the immune system, including the complement system and its activation, plays an important role. Suitable models to investigate neuroretinal diseases are organ cultures of porcine retina. Based on an established model, the role of the complement system was studied after the induction of oxidative stress or hypoxia. Both stressors led to a loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) accompanied by apoptosis. Hypoxia activated the complement system as noted by higher C3+ and MAC+ cell numbers. In this model, activation of the complement cascade occurred via the classical pathway and the number of C1q+ microglia was increased. In oxidative stressed retinas, the complement system had no consideration, but strong inflammation took place, with elevated TNF, IL6, and IL8 mRNA expression levels. Together, this study shows that hypoxia and oxidative stress induce different mechanisms in the porcine retina inducing either the immune response or an inflammation. Our findings support the thesis that the immune system is involved in the development of retinal diseases. Furthermore, this study is evidence that both approaches seem suitable models to investigate undergoing pathomechanisms of several neuroretinal diseases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (40) ◽  
pp. 4726-4741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orathai Tangvarasittichai ◽  
Surapon Tangvarasittichai

Background: Oxidative stress is caused by free radicals or oxidant productions, including lipid peroxidation, protein modification, DNA damage and apoptosis or cell death and results in cellular degeneration and neurodegeneration from damage to macromolecules. Results: Accumulation of the DNA damage (8HOdG) products and the end products of LPO (including aldehyde, diene, triene conjugates and Schiff’s bases) were noted in the research studies. Significantly higher levels of these products in comparison with the controls were observed. Oxidative stress induced changes to ocular cells and tissues. Typical changes include ECM accumulation, cell dysfunction, cell death, advanced senescence, disarrangement or rearrangement of the cytoskeleton and released inflammatory cytokines. It is involved in ocular diseases, including keratoconus, Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy, and granular corneal dystrophy type 2, cataract, age-related macular degeneration, primary open-angle glaucoma, retinal light damage, and retinopathy of prematurity. These ocular diseases are the cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Conclusions: Oxidative stress, inflammation and autophagy are implicated in biochemical and morphological changes in these ocular tissues. The development of therapy is a major target for the management care of these ocular diseases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 321
Author(s):  
Kyoung Min Kim ◽  
Tae-Young Heo ◽  
Aesul Kim ◽  
Joohee Kim ◽  
Kyu Jin Han ◽  
...  

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based diagnostic tools have been accepted in ophthalmology. The use of retinal images, such as fundus photographs, is a promising approach for the development of AI-based diagnostic platforms. Retinal pathologies usually occur in a broad spectrum of eye diseases, including neovascular or dry age-related macular degeneration, epiretinal membrane, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, retinitis pigmentosa, macular hole, retinal vein occlusions, and diabetic retinopathy. Here, we report a fundus image-based AI model for differential diagnosis of retinal diseases. We classified retinal images with three convolutional neural network models: ResNet50, VGG19, and Inception v3. Furthermore, the performance of several dense (fully connected) layers was compared. The prediction accuracy for diagnosis of nine classes of eight retinal diseases and normal control was 87.42% in the ResNet50 model, which added a dense layer with 128 nodes. Furthermore, our AI tool augments ophthalmologist’s performance in the diagnosis of retinal disease. These results suggested that the fundus image-based AI tool is applicable for the medical diagnosis process of retinal diseases.


Antioxidants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Lara Macchioni ◽  
Davide Chiasserini ◽  
Letizia Mezzasoma ◽  
Magdalena Davidescu ◽  
Pier Luigi Orvietani ◽  
...  

Age-related retinal degenerations, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are caused by the loss of retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells and photoreceptors. The pathogenesis of AMD, deeply linked to the aging process, also involves oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. However, the molecular mechanisms contributing to the shift from healthy aging to AMD are still poorly understood. Since RPE cells in the retina are chronically exposed to a pro-oxidant microenvironment throughout life, we simulated in vivo conditions by growing ARPE-19 cells in the presence of 10 μM H2O2 for several passages. This long-term oxidative insult induced senescence in ARPE-19 cells without affecting cell proliferation. Global proteomic analysis revealed a dysregulated expression in proteins involved in antioxidant response, mitochondrial homeostasis, and extracellular matrix organization. The analyses of mitochondrial functionality showed increased mitochondrial biogenesis and ATP generation and improved response to oxidative stress. The latter, however, was linked to nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) rather than nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (Nrf2) activation. NF-κB hyperactivation also resulted in increased pro-inflammatory cytokines expression and inflammasome activation. Moreover, in response to additional pro-inflammatory insults, senescent ARPE-19 cells underwent an exaggerated inflammatory reaction. Our results indicate senescence as an important link between chronic oxidative insult and detrimental chronic inflammation, with possible future repercussions for therapeutic interventions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rawshan Choudhury ◽  
Nadhim Bayatti ◽  
Richard Scharff ◽  
Ewa Szula ◽  
Viranga Tilakaratna ◽  
...  

AbstractRetinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells that underlie the neurosensory retina are essential for the maintenance of photoreceptor cells and hence vision. Interactions between the RPE and their basement membrane, i.e. the inner layer of Bruch’s membrane, are essential for RPE cell health and function, but the signals induced by Bruch’s membrane engagement, and their contributions to RPE cell fate determination remain poorly defined. Here, we studied the functional role of the soluble complement regulator and component of Bruch’s membrane, Factor H-like protein 1 (FHL-1). Human primary RPE cells adhered to FHL-1 in a manner that was eliminated by either mutagenesis of the integrin-binding RGD motif in FHL-1 or by using competing antibodies directed against the α5 and β1 integrin subunits. These short-term experiments reveal an immediate protein-integrin interaction that were obtained from primary RPE cells and replicated using the hTERT-RPE1 cell line. Separate, longer term experiments utilising RNAseq analysis of hTERT-RPE1 cells bound to FHL-1, showed an increased expression of the heat-shock protein genes HSPA6, CRYAB, HSPA1A and HSPA1B when compared to cells bound to fibronectin (FN) or laminin (LA). Pathway analysis implicated changes in EIF2 signalling, the unfolded protein response, and mineralocorticoid receptor signalling as putative pathways. Subsequent cell survival assays using H2O2 to induce oxidative stress-induced cell death suggest hTERT-RPE1 cells had significantly greater protection when bound to FHL-1 or LA compared to plastic or FN. These data show a non-canonical role of FHL-1 in protecting RPE cells against oxidative stress and identifies a novel interaction that has implications for ocular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration.


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