advertisement
Abstract #25381 Published in IGR 12-1
Risk factors and potential prediction in glaucoma
Yeghiazaryan K; Flammer J; Golubnitschaja OAmino Acids 2009; 37: S13
Why early diagnostics is essential for glaucoma treatment? Worldwide, 67 million patients are affected by the neurodegenerative eye disease Glaucoma. Glaucomatous optic neuropathy is the second leading cause of permanent vision loss. Early diagnostics has been demonstrated to be highly beneficial for well-timed treatment measures to suppress the disease progression. What is the impact of predictive molecular diagnostics in glaucoma? Molecular pathomechanisms of glaucoma demonstrate both a considerable overlap and remarkable particularities to some other neurodegenerative disorders, e.g. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Therefore, the selection of a set of key molecules, the expression levels of which are specifically affected by glaucoma, is particularly valuable for the development of highly precise molecular diagnostic approaches. Noninvasive imaging technologies in early and predictive glaucoma diagnostics. Imaging of DNA-damage and -repair capacity: Comparative Comet Assay analysis demonstrates significantly enhanced DNAdamage and decreased DNA-repair capacity in circulating leukocytes of glaucoma patients versus these of controls. Furthermore, the pathology-specific comet patterns have been registered. Altered gene expression patterns in blood: The following key pathways are affected in glaucoma pathology: stress response, apoptosis and DNA-repair, adhesion, blood-brain-barrier-breakdown, tissue remodeling, transcription regulation, multi-drug resistance, energy metabolism. These pathology-specific molecular patterns in blood may create the basis for the development of novel noninvasive molecular imaging technologies in early and predictive glaucoma diagnostics.
K. Yeghiazaryan. Department of Radiology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Bonn, Germany.
Classification:
9.2.2 Other risk factors for glaucoma (Part of: 9 Clinical forms of glaucomas > 9.2 Primary open angle glaucomas)
3.5 Molecular biology incl. SiRNA (Part of: 3 Laboratory methods)
