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Dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the most common causes of irreversible blindness affecting nearly 50 million individuals globally. The disease is characterised by progressive loss of central vision, which has significant implications for quality of life concerns in an increasingly a...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4541342/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26088679 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/eye.2015.100 |
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author | Ratnayaka, J A Serpell, L C Lotery, A J |
author_facet | Ratnayaka, J A Serpell, L C Lotery, A J |
author_sort | Ratnayaka, J A |
collection | PubMed |
description | Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the most common causes of irreversible blindness affecting nearly 50 million individuals globally. The disease is characterised by progressive loss of central vision, which has significant implications for quality of life concerns in an increasingly ageing population. AMD pathology manifests in the macula, a specialised region of the retina, which is responsible for central vision and perception of fine details. The underlying pathology of this complex degenerative disease is incompletely understood but includes both genetic as well as epigenetic risk factors. The recent discovery that amyloid beta (Aβ), a highly toxic and aggregate-prone family of peptides, is elevated in the ageing retina and is associated with AMD has opened up new perspectives on the aetiology of this debilitating blinding disease. Multiple studies now link Aβ with key stages of AMD progression, which is both exciting and potentially insightful, as this identifies a well-established toxic agent that aggressively targets cells in degenerative brains. Here, we review the most recent findings supporting the hypothesis that Aβ may be a key factor in AMD pathology. We describe how multiple Aβ reservoirs, now reported in the ageing eye, may target the cellular physiology of the retina as well as associated layers, and propose a mechanistic pathway of Aβ-mediated degenerative change leading to AMD. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4541342 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-45413422015-08-26 Dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration Ratnayaka, J A Serpell, L C Lotery, A J Eye (Lond) Review Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the most common causes of irreversible blindness affecting nearly 50 million individuals globally. The disease is characterised by progressive loss of central vision, which has significant implications for quality of life concerns in an increasingly ageing population. AMD pathology manifests in the macula, a specialised region of the retina, which is responsible for central vision and perception of fine details. The underlying pathology of this complex degenerative disease is incompletely understood but includes both genetic as well as epigenetic risk factors. The recent discovery that amyloid beta (Aβ), a highly toxic and aggregate-prone family of peptides, is elevated in the ageing retina and is associated with AMD has opened up new perspectives on the aetiology of this debilitating blinding disease. Multiple studies now link Aβ with key stages of AMD progression, which is both exciting and potentially insightful, as this identifies a well-established toxic agent that aggressively targets cells in degenerative brains. Here, we review the most recent findings supporting the hypothesis that Aβ may be a key factor in AMD pathology. We describe how multiple Aβ reservoirs, now reported in the ageing eye, may target the cellular physiology of the retina as well as associated layers, and propose a mechanistic pathway of Aβ-mediated degenerative change leading to AMD. Nature Publishing Group 2015-08 2015-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4541342/ /pubmed/26088679 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/eye.2015.100 Text en Copyright © 2015 Royal College of Ophthalmologists http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce thematerial. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Review Ratnayaka, J A Serpell, L C Lotery, A J Dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration |
title | Dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration |
title_full | Dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration |
title_fullStr | Dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration |
title_full_unstemmed | Dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration |
title_short | Dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration |
title_sort | dementia of the eye: the role of amyloid beta in retinal degeneration |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4541342/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26088679 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/eye.2015.100 |
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