Treating amblyopia by digestion of the extracellular matrix and stimulation of axonal growth in the visual cortex

通过消化细胞外基质和刺激视觉皮层轴突生长来治疗弱视

• 批准号: G0502299/1
• 负责人: Frank Sengpiel
• 金额: $ 35.76万
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0502299%2F1
• 关键词: Treating; amblyopia; digestion; extracellular; matrix

The commonest visual disorder of children is amblyopia (lazy eye), which affects 2-4% of the population. This project explores potential avenues for treating amblyopia in adulthood.Amblyopia is defined clinically as a deficit in visual acuity despite optimal refractive correction, due to some disruption of normal visual development during childhood. Amblyopia is usually treated by occlusion therapy (covering the good eye for a period of time to enforce the use of the amblyopic eye). The effectiveness of this procedure decreases with age. To date, it is not possible to restore normal vision in an amblyopic eye after the age of 8 years, the end of sensitive period of cortical plasticity. This project aims at restoring visual cortical plasticity in adulthood. We know that in the adult brain, the ability of neurons to form new connections is limited by a mesh of molecules surrounding them, the extracellular matrix, which becomes more and more rigid during adolescence. We plan to infuse enzymes into the visual cortex that will loosen up that matrix, and additional substances that are known to promote the outgrowth of neuronal processes. We hope that this combination strategy will reverse the loss of functional connections from the deprived eye to the visual cortex. We will employ functional brain imaging to assess whether visual cortex responses to stimulation of the amblyopic eye will have returned. We will test and refine our treatment using animals, and later on hope to develop it further for amblyopic patients who have suffered loss of vision in their good eye through illness or injury and have therefore become blind or severely visually impaired.

儿童最常见的视觉障碍是弱视（弱视），影响2-4%的人口。该项目探讨了治疗成人弱视的潜在途径。弱视的临床定义是，由于儿童时期正常视觉发育受到一定干扰，尽管进行了最佳屈光矫正，但视力仍有缺陷。弱视通常通过遮盖疗法（遮盖好眼一段时间以强制使用弱视眼）来治疗。这种方法的有效性随着年龄的增长而下降。到目前为止，弱视眼在8岁后恢复正常视力是不可能的，8岁是皮质可塑性敏感期的结束。该项目旨在恢复成年人的视觉皮层可塑性。我们知道，在成年人的大脑中，神经元形成新连接的能力受到周围分子网的限制，细胞外基质在青春期变得越来越坚硬。我们计划将酶注入视觉皮层，以放松该基质，以及已知促进神经元过程生长的其他物质。我们希望这种组合策略能够扭转从被剥夺的眼睛到视觉皮层的功能连接的丧失。我们将采用功能性脑成像来评估弱视眼的视觉皮层对刺激的反应是否会恢复。我们将使用动物测试和改进我们的治疗方法，以后希望进一步开发用于弱视患者的治疗方法，这些患者因疾病或受伤而失去了视力，因此失明或严重视力受损。