Rewiring Retinal Messages to Slow Vision Loss in AMD

Rewiring Retinal Messages to Slow Vision Loss in AMD

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of adult blindness, affects nearly half of Oklahomans over age 80. New research is uncovering how retinal cells communicate using microRNA and extracellular vesicles (EVs), with the goal of slowing AMD progression.

Mechanisms of Aging Stress Retinal Cells, Contributing to Retinal Pathologies

As researchers here note, age-related diseases of the retina are age-related because underlying mechanisms of damage and dysfunction place stress on cells, changing their function and even killing them. Measuring changes in gene expression that take place in stressed cells is one way to look at these unfortunate effects, though it gives little insight into the fine details of why cell behavior changes. The various forms of damage and dysfunction…