A Potential New Therapy for Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness, often referred to as the "silent thief of sight." It is a complex disease where the primary cause of vision loss is the death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), which transmit visual information from the eye to the brain. While high intraocular pressure (IOP) is a major risk factor, many patients still experience progressive vision loss even after their IOP is controlled. This suggests that other factors, like inflammation and cell death, are also at play.

Our research, "A small peptide antagonist of the Fas receptor inhibits neuroinflammation and prevents axon degeneration and retinal ganglion cell death in an inducible mouse model of glaucoma," investigates a potential new way to protect these cells. We focused on the Fas receptor, a protein that plays a key role in programmed cell death (apoptosis) and inflammation. We previously showed that targeting Fas could protect the retina in other disease models.

In this study, we tested a small peptide called ONL1204, which is designed to inhibit the Fas receptor, in a mouse model of glaucoma. Our findings were very encouraging: ONL1204 was able to significantly reduce both inflammation and the death of retinal ganglion cells, even when the intraocular pressure was elevated.

This research highlights that targeting the Fas receptor could be a powerful neuroprotective strategy for glaucoma. It suggests a new therapeutic avenue that goes beyond simply lowering eye pressure, offering a potential way to directly protect the cells that are so critical for vision.

For more information, please see the full publication here.