Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy characterized by a progressive degeneration of retinalganglion cells (RGCs) and their axons. The RGC loss is thought to result, in part, from a decreasein target-derived trophic material. This is supported by studies showing that direct injections oftrophic factors into the injured eye are beneficial. Unfortunately, they do not provide long-termneuroprotection. Previous work in our lab has indicated that treatment of the entire centralvisual pathway (CVP) is more beneficial long-term vs treatment of the eye alone. While thosestudies involved direct application of trophic factor to the eye and visual cortex, the presentstudies apply an optogenetic approach to induce enhanced endogenous levels of CVP trophicfactors.Measurement of RGC survival following optic nerve injury and treatment of the eye combinedwith optogenetic stimulation of visual cortex showed significant improvement compared to notreatment or treatment of the eye alone, supporting our theory that future development ofglaucoma treatment strategies must involve treatment of the entire central visual pathway, andnot just treatment of the eye, as is the current convention.
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