INDIANAPOLIS—Scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered a new way to treat glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease that damages the optic nerve and can cause blindness. It affects more than 200,000 people in the United States each year. Currently, there is no cure for glaucoma.
In a study published in Communications Biology, researchers found that neurons use mitochondria for energy. They also found that restoring mitochondrial balance in diseased neurons can protect optic nerve cells from damage.
“Glaucoma is just one of many neurodegenerative diseases that affect older people,” said Dr. Arupratan Das, an ophthalmology researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine. “These diseases are a major global health problem, and we need to find better ways to treat them.”
Dr. Das and his team used stem cells from people with and without glaucoma to study the disease. They used a special tool called CRISPR to make changes in the stem cells. They also used a type of electron microscope to look at the mitochondria in the cells. They found that the cells from people with glaucoma had fewer mitochondria and that the mitochondria they had were not working properly. This led to damage and death of the cells. Mitochondria are small structures in cells that produce energy.
The research team found that a certain group of cells in the retina (retinal ganglion cells) are really good at getting rid of bad mitochondria. These cells are also able to make more mitochondria to keep things balanced. They found that cells with glaucoma make more energy (adenosine triphosphate or ATP) even when they have fewer mitochondria. When they were triggered to make more mitochondria, the ATP production was spread out among more mitochondria and this helped to restore the mitochondria’s normal function. This is like carrying a heavy stone with more people, each person would have less pain and injury, similarly, each mitochondrion would have less difficulty and damage.
Das wants to study if the mechanisms that were found in this research protect the optic nerve in animals that have been injured before trying it on humans. He hopes this will lead to new treatments that can be used in clinics, which could happen this decade.