Editors Selection (IGR: 10-4) | International Glaucoma Review #1843

Editors Selection IGR 10-4

Basic Science: A Marker of Retinal Neuron Aging?

Comment by Keith Martin on:

75539 Expression of Sirtuins in the Retinal Neurons of Mice, Rats, and Humans, Luo H; Zhou M; Ji K et al., Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 2017; 9: 366

The Sirtuins (SIRT) are a class of NAD+ dependent histone deacetylases that play important roles in stress response, aging, and neurodegenerative diseases. SIRTs are involved in cell and tissue metabolism, and the dependence of Sirtuins on NAD links their enzymatic activity directly to the energy status of the cell. To date, seven Sirtuins have been identified in mammals but their distribution in the retina and response to retinal injury have not been systematically studied.

In the current study, Luo and co-workers assessed the retinal expression of Sirtuins in mice, rats, and humans and measured the expression of Sirtuins in aged and injured retinas. The authors used a variety of quantitative techniques including Real Time PCR, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. The studies appear to have been carefully performed, although in some of the immunohistochemistry it is difficult to know how specific the labelling is and the differences reported between species are difficult to interpret.

[...] SIRT1 could be a potential therapeutic target in glaucoma

The most interesting finding was a marked reduction of SIRT1 expression in aged retinal neurons as well as retinas injured by acute ischemia-reperfusion. Previous studies have shown that SIRT1 plays a crucial role in age-related retinal degeneration and its activity has been studied in various animal models of neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and retinal ischemic injury. Of particular interest to glaucoma, studies have demonstrated that SIRT1 is responsible for the protective effects of resveratrol, a SIRT1 activator, against neurodegeneration and aging.

Overall, the authors have provided some nice baseline information on the retinal distribution of SIRTs that will be useful to those in the field and they have provided support for the idea that boosting SIRT1 could be a potential therapeutic target in diseases such as glaucoma.

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