Arupratan Das, PhD, and his team at the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology have identified a promising new strategy to help protect vision in people with glaucoma by preserving the nerve cells that carry visual information from the eye to the brain.
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide. Current treatments mainly focus on lowering pressure inside the eye, but many patients continue to lose vision despite treatment. Some people even develop glaucoma when eye pressure is normal.
“Our study identified a promising drug-based strategy to protect vision in glaucoma by directly protecting the nerve cells that die in this disease,” Das said.
These nerve cells, called retinal ganglion cells, act like the communication cable between the eye and the brain. In glaucoma, the cells experience an “energy crisis” that causes them to weaken and eventually die, leading to permanent vision loss.
Using retinal ganglion cells created from human stem cells, the research team screened clinically tested compounds to identify drugs that could restore the cells’ energy supply and help them survive. The researchers identified WAY-100635 as a particularly promising candidate.
In multiple preclinical glaucoma models, the compound helped restore energy function in the cells, reduced nerve cell death and preserved visual signal relay through the optic nerve and visual system.
“This discovery opens a new path toward the future of glaucoma therapy that does more than controlling eye pressure; it aims to preserve vision by directly protecting the nerve cells responsible for sight,” Das said.
The findings are especially important because there are currently no approved treatments that directly protect retinal ganglion cells from damage in glaucoma.
Researchers say the therapy could potentially help patients with both high-pressure and normal-pressure glaucoma, including those who continue to lose vision despite standard treatments.
Another encouraging aspect of the study is that WAY-100635 has already been used in prior human imaging studies, meaning researchers already have some safety information about the compound. While additional studies are still needed before the therapy could move into clinical trials for glaucoma patients, the existing safety background may help speed future development.
Researchers believe the work represents an important step toward a long-sought goal in glaucoma care: developing treatments that not only lower eye pressure, but also directly protect the nerve cells responsible for vision.
