Likely new treatment target identified for diabetic retinopathy

[Northerner]

In oxygen-compromising conditions like diabetes, the body grows new blood vessels to help, but the result is often leaky, dysfunctional vessels that make bad matters worse.

Now scientists have identified a new target for reducing that dysfunctional blood vessel development in the eye in a common condition called diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults.

"If we block the adenosine receptor A2a, the blood vessels will not leak and not as many new blood vessels will grow," says Dr. Yuqing Huo, chief of the Vascular Inflammation Program at the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171010105627.htm

 

[mikeyB]

They’ll never be able to get this to work without compromising these receptors throughout the rest of the body, which could seriously crash the whole system.