The Blood-Retinal Barrier - Modelling Mechanisms for Maintenance, Breakdown and Repair

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/464828

Funding Status
Closed

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Funded Activity Summary

We believe that breakdown of the barrier that separates the delicate nervous tissue of the eye from the bloodstream, the blood-retinal barrier, may be an early event in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), now overall the commonest cause of blindness in Australia. We have recently demonstrated with the first scientific clinical trials to be conducted in the world that an injection of steroid into the jelly of the eye, or vitreous , of the steroid triamcinolone slows the growth of abnormal blood vessels in patients with wet AMD. In the current project, Prof Nick King, a cell biologist and viral immunologist, will collaborate with Dr Michelle Madigan, A-Prof Jan Provis, both experts in experimetnal AMD, and A-Prof Mark Gillies, a clinician-scientist specialising in AMD, to study how the treatment works using established animal and laboratory models of a damaged blood retinal barrier. We will be particularly interested in processes which are thought to critical in the development these diseases. We will also study newly described processes by which the junctions that seal the cells of the barrier together come apart. We will be interested not just in the cells that make the barrier, but also the effect of nearby cells that are thought to contribute to it. These studies will provide a solid foundation for the rationalisation of steroid treatment for AMD which can be expected to result in improved outcomes for our patients. The studies may also provide insights into how other barriers malfunction, such as the blood brain barrier which breaks down in Alzheimer s disease and multiple sclerosis.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2007

End Date: 01-01-2009

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $394,310.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Opthalmology And Vision Science

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Age-related macular degeneration | Blood-retinal barrier | Choroidal endothelium | Flavivirus | Macular degeneration | Pigment epithelium | Virus infection | Virus infections | Vision disorders - blindness

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