Future Direction in Diabetic Eye Disease

Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the leading causes of vision loss worldwide and its incidence is only projected to increase. Much effort has been dedicated to investigating new therapies and drug delivery approach in treating its complications, diabetic macular edema (DME) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Although anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has gained popularity in treatment for DR, patients who respond poorly to intravitreal injections have prompted the search for additional pathogenic pathways and thus therapeutic targets that may better control disease activity. These novel therapies, including various anti-angiogenic agents, growth factor inhibitors, integrin inhibitors, sustained delivery platforms, gene therapy, chemokine and other inflammatory inhibitors, and neuroprotective agents, are currently being evaluated for the management of DR. Optimal treatment paradigms in the management of PDR are also under investigation.

Keywords: Anti-VEGF, Angiogenic, Cytokine, Complications, DME, Diabetes, Integrin, Implant, Laser, Neovascularization, Proliferative, Retinopathy, Steroid, Target, Therapeutic.