Summary: Angiogenic ocular conditions are the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in developed countries. Dr. Kaja reviews the preclinical models available for drug discovery for ocular angiogenesis and discusses the challenges and opportunities associated with them.
Content
Ocular angiogenesis occurs in a broad spectrum of disorders, including wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), retinal artery or vein occlusion, neovascular glaucoma, and corneal neovascularization. Collectively, angiogenic ocular conditions are the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in developed countries.
Current treatment approaches rely on intravitreal injections of drugs that neutralize vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), laser treatments, and rehabilitation for a low vision lifestyle. While anti-VEGF therapy can slow disease progression, blindness still occurs in a significant portion of patients, highlighting an urgent unmet clinical need for novel therapeutic approaches for these angiogenic ocular conditions.
Animals models used in preclinical drug discovery must meet stringent criteria of standardization and validation in order to yield reliable and predictable data, while at the same time model the disease pathophysiology and response to existing standard of care.
In this presentation called Preclinical models for ocular angiogenesis, Experimentica’s Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Simon Kaja will review the various preclinical models available for drug discovery for ocular angiogenesis and discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with them.
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