What is the problem/issue being addressed?: Up to 80% of all eye diseases worldwide are preventable. While conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) represents one of the most common forms of eye disease, patients continue to lose their sight due to limited drugs currently on the market. One key reason for a lack of efficient drugs is that the underlying molecular causes of the condition are still not fully understood. In the Retina-Rhythm ERC project, we believe that the key driver of AMD in its early stages, is a disruption to the integrity of the blood vessels at the back of the eye. We are working with animal models of the disease as well as patients, in an effort to identify what is causing the condition and how we can better treat it in the future.
Why is this important for society?: Over 224,000 Irish people and 40 million people worldwide are affected by severe vision loss where they would be considered legally blind. The number of people affected by blindness is increasing, largely due to our ageing population. The Economic Cost and Burden of Eye Diseases and Preventable Blindness in Ireland report was released in April 2014 by the National Vision Coalition, part of a pan-European study of 16 countries by Deloitte, an alliance of ophthalmology healthcare professionals, those working in the sight loss community, and service users (
http://www.ncbi.ie/about-(opens in new window) ncbi/national-vision-coalition/). People should not have to suffer avoidable sight loss, the vision loss associated with retinal diseases as outlined here should be avoidable with partner diagnostic and personalized treatment using our innovative approaches. The burden of blindness/sight loss on healthcare services stretches beyond Ophthalmology care as people with vision loss are up to eight times more likely to fracture a hip, three times more likely to be depressed, and admission to nursing homes takes place up to three years earlier. There will be a significant financial benefit if sight loss can be avoided. In addition, cost to the State increases significantly if a person progresses from being visually impaired (€1.7K per person per annum) to being blind (€21K per person per annum). It has been estimated that 123 million workdays are lost per year in Europe, while in Ireland 2.1 million healthy days are lost per annum as a consequence of vision impairment and blindness.
What are the overall objectives? We have 3 main objectives in our project. The first is to prove that the blood vessels of the inner retina are centrally involved in initiating pathology in AMD. The second objective is to explore novel therapeutic strategies to regulate blood vessels of the retina to prevent disease in animal models. Finally, we are also conducting a large clinical research project whereby we take very detailed pictures of the blood vessels of the retina in patients living with AMD. Overall, we seek to gain an in depth understanding of what drives AMD pathology and how we can design drugs of the future to treat this debilitating blindness.
