scholarly journals Metabolomics and Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Metabolites ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connor Brown ◽  
Brian Green ◽  
Richard Thompson ◽  
Anneke den Hollander ◽  
Imre Lengyel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Macular Degeneration ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Disease Diagnosis ◽  
Age Related Macular Degeneration ◽  
Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging ◽  
Metabolic Dysfunction ◽  
Early Disease ◽  
Lifetime Imaging ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Early Markers

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) leads to irreversible visual loss, therefore, early intervention is desirable, but due to its multifactorial nature, diagnosis of early disease might be challenging. Identification of early markers for disease development and progression is key for disease diagnosis. Suitable biomarkers can potentially provide opportunities for clinical intervention at a stage of the disease when irreversible changes are yet to take place. One of the most metabolically active tissues in the human body is the retina, making the use of hypothesis-free techniques, like metabolomics, to measure molecular changes in AMD appealing. Indeed, there is increasing evidence that metabolic dysfunction has an important role in the development and progression of AMD. Therefore, metabolomics appears to be an appropriate platform to investigate disease-associated biomarkers. In this review, we explored what is known about metabolic changes in the retina, in conjunction with the emerging literature in AMD metabolomics research. Methods for metabolic biomarker identification in the eye have also been discussed, including the use of tears, vitreous, and aqueous humor, as well as imaging methods, like fluorescence lifetime imaging, that could be translated into a clinical diagnostic tool with molecular level resolution.

scholarly journals Progressive dysmorphia of retinal pigment epithelium in age related macular degeneration revealed by fluorescence lifetime imaging

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Hammer ◽  
Juliane Jakob-Girbig ◽  
Linda Schwanengel ◽  
Christine A. Curcio ◽  
Somar Hasan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Retinal Pigment Epithelium ◽  
Macular Degeneration ◽  
Fluorescence Lifetime ◽  
Pigment Epithelium ◽  
Retinal Pigment ◽  
Age Related Macular Degeneration ◽  
Fundus Photography ◽  
Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging ◽  
Lifetime Imaging ◽  
Age Related

AbstractPurposeTo observe changes of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) on the transition from dysmorphia to atrophy in age related macular degeneration (AMD) by fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO).MethodsMultimodal imaging including color fundus photography (CFP), optical coherence tomography (OCT), fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging, and FLIO was performed in 40 eyes of 37 patients with intermediate AMD and no evidence for geographic atrophy or macular neovascularization) (mean age: 74.2±7.0 years). Twenty-three eyes were followed for 28.3±18.3 months. Seven eyes had a second follow up after 46.6±9.0 months. Thickened RPE on OCT, hyperpigmentation on CFP, and migrated RPE, seen as hyperreflective foci (HRF) on OCT, were identified. Fluorescence lifetimes in two spectral channels (SSC: 500-560 nm, LSC: 560-720 nm) as well as emission spectrum intensity ratio (ESIR) of the lesions were measured by FLIO.ResultsAs hyperpigmented areas form and RPE migrates into the retina, FAF lifetimes lengthen and ESRI of RPE cells increase. Thickened RPE showed lifetimes of 256±49 ps (SSC) and 336±35 ps (LSC) and an ESIR of 0.552±0.079. For hyperpigmentation, these values were 317±68 ps (p<0.001), 377±56 ps (p<0.001), and 0.609±0.081 (p=0.001), respectively, and for HRF 337±79 ps (p<0.001), 414±50 ps (p<0.001), and 0.654±0.075 (p<0.001).ConclusionsIn the process of RPE degeneration, comprising different steps of dysmorphia, hyperpigmentation, and migration, lengthening of FAF lifetimes and a hypsochromic shift of emission spectra can be observed by FLIO. Thus, FLIO might provide early biomarkers for AMD progression and contribute to our understanding of RPE pathology.

Definition of indicators of appropriateness in the management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration: An expert opinion

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 795-804
Author(s):  
Teresio Avitabile ◽  
Francesco Boscia ◽  
Alessandro Dell’Erba ◽  
Ugo Introini ◽  
Paolo Lanzetta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Macular Degeneration ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Age Related Macular Degeneration ◽  
Healthcare Provision ◽  
Optimal Care ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Reference Parameters

Wet age-related macular degeneration is a chronic condition culminating, in most cases, in blindness. The introduction of anti-angiogenic agents in 2006 has represented a major breakthrough in the treatment of the disease, but timely and effective treatment with regular follow-up and monitoring is mandatory to stabilize and preserve visual acuity. In clinical practice, however, appropriate therapy provision is frequently challenged by economic and organizational issues that result in suboptimal visual outcomes and increased incidence of legal blindness. International Guidelines have defined a diagnostic and therapeutic pathway to ensure the best practice in wet age-related macular degeneration management, but reference parameters to evaluate and compare the performance of Retina Centers are lacking. To address the appropriateness of wet age-related macular degeneration management in Italy, a multidisciplinary panel of ten experts gathered in three meetings. They defined three sets of indicators and relative benchmark values that each Center should comply with to ensure patients optimal care already from the first access: (a) clinical intervention indicators, to determine the possible Center’s deviation from the diagnostic and therapeutic pathway; (b) outcome indicator, to evaluate the socioeconomic impact of the healthcare systems’ performance; (c) management indicators, to test the size of the gap between the Center’s supply and demand. Once the indicators have been analyzed, healthcare systems can plan actions to improve appropriateness and monitor their effects. However, to put this in practice, a concerted effort by all parts involved in healthcare provision is required, together with adequate systems to analyze clinical and administrative documentation.

scholarly journals Human aging and disease: Lessons from age-related macular degeneration

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (12) ◽  
pp. 2866-2872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennings Luu ◽  
Krzysztof Palczewski
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Macular Degeneration ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Significant Risk Factor ◽  
Age Related Macular Degeneration ◽  
Metabolic Dysfunction ◽  
Systems Pharmacology ◽  
Network Systems ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Drug Regimens

Aging is the most significant risk factor associated with chronic disease in humans. The accumulation of genetic damage throughout life leads to a variety of biological aberrations, including disrupted protein homeostasis, metabolic dysfunction, and altered cellular signaling. Such changes ultimately result in cellular senescence, death, or transformation to uncontrolled proliferation, thereby compromising human health. Events contributing to age-dependent physiological decline also occur in the context of hormonal and metabolic changes, affecting interconnected cellular networks. This complexity often confounds the development of effective treatments for aging and age-related diseases. In contrast to monotherapy and polypharmacology, an innovative systems pharmacology approach can identify synergistic combinations of drugs that modulate distinct mechanistic nodes within a network, minimizing off-target side effects and enabling better therapeutic outcomes. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are particularly good targets for the application of systems pharmacology, because they activate different signal transduction pathways that can culminate in a common response. Here, we describe a systems pharmacology strategy for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a multifactorial chronic disease of the eye. By considering the retina as part of a large, interconnected network, systems pharmacology will enable the identification of combination therapies targeting GPCRs to help restore genomic, proteomic, and endocrine homeostasis. Such an approach can be advantageous in providing drug regimens for the treatment of AMD, while also having broader ramifications for ameliorating adverse effects of chronic, age-related disease in humans.

scholarly journals Fully Automated Robust System to Detect Retinal Edema, Central Serous Chorioretinopathy, and Age Related Macular Degeneration from Optical Coherence Tomography Images

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samina Khalid ◽  
M. Usman Akram ◽  
Taimur Hassan ◽  
Ammara Nasim ◽  
Amina Jameel
Keyword(s):  
Optical Coherence Tomography ◽  
Macular Degeneration ◽  
Central Serous Chorioretinopathy ◽  
Disease Diagnosis ◽  
Age Related Macular Degeneration ◽  
Automated System ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Optical Coherence ◽  
Retinal Edema ◽  
Age Related

Maculopathy is the excessive damage to macula that leads to blindness. It mostly occurs due to retinal edema (RE), central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR), or age related macular degeneration (ARMD). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging is the latest eye testing technique that can detect these syndromes in early stages. Many researchers have used OCT images to detect retinal abnormalities. However, to the best of our knowledge, no research that presents a fully automated system to detect all of these macular syndromes is reported. This paper presents the world’s first ever decision support system to automatically detect RE, CSCR, and ARMD retinal pathologies and healthy retina from OCT images. The automated disease diagnosis in our proposed system is based on multilayered support vector machines (SVM) classifier trained on 40 labeled OCT scans (10 healthy, 10 RE, 10 CSCR, and 10 ARMD). After training, SVM forms an accurate decision about the type of retinal pathology using 9 extracted features. We have tested our proposed system on 2819 OCT scans (1437 healthy, 640 RE, and 742 CSCR) of 502 patients from two different datasets and our proposed system correctly diagnosed 2817/2819 subjects with the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity ratings of 99.92%, 100%, and 99.86%, respectively.

Early Markers of Choroidal Neovascularization in the Fellow Eye of Patients with Unilateral Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration

2011 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luz Cachulo ◽  
Rufino Silva ◽  
Pedro Fonseca ◽  
Isabel Pires ◽  
Santos Carvajal-Gonzalez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Macular Degeneration ◽  
Choroidal Neovascularization ◽  
Age Related Macular Degeneration ◽  
Fellow Eye ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Early Markers

Age related macular degeneration (ARMD) – pathophysiological and clinical features and therapeutic concepts

2001 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Körner-Stiefbold
Keyword(s):  
Macular Degeneration ◽  
Clinical Features ◽  
Altersbedingte Makuladegeneration ◽  
Age Related Macular Degeneration ◽  
Genetische Faktoren ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Therapeutic Concepts

Die altersbedingte Makuladegeneration (AMD) ist eine der häufigsten Ursachen für einen irreversiblen Visusverlust bei Patienten über 65 Jahre. Nahezu 30% der über 75-Jährigen sind von einer AMD betroffen. Trotz neuer Erkenntnisse in der Grundlagenforschung ist die Ätiologie, zu der auch genetische Faktoren gehören, noch nicht völlig geklärt. Aus diesem Grund sind die Behandlungsmöglichkeiten zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt noch limitiert, so dass man lediglich von Therapieansätzen sprechen kann. Die derzeit zur Verfügung stehenden Möglichkeiten wie medikamentöse, chirurgische und laser- und strahlentherapeutische Maßnahmen werden beschrieben.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document