中国神经再生研究(英文版) ›› 2017, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (4): 538-548.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.205083

• 综述:退行性病与再生 • 上一篇    下一篇

年龄相关黄斑变性的复杂性:淀粉样蛋白β可能发挥重要作用?

  

  • 收稿日期:2017-03-19 出版日期:2017-04-15 发布日期:2017-04-15
  • 基金资助:

    此研究由国家动物替代改造与减少中心(NC3R:Grant#NC / L001152 / 1)、英国黄斑学会,国家眼科研究中心和视力诉求机构共同资助

The complexities underlying age-related macular degeneration: could amyloid beta play an important role?

Savannah A. Lynn1, Eloise Keeling1, Rosie Munday1, Gagandeep Gabha1, Helen Griffiths1, Andrew J. Lotery1, 2, J. Arjuna Ratnayaka1   

  1. 1 Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom; 2 Eye Unit, University Southampton NHS Trust, Southampton, United Kingdom
  • Received:2017-03-19 Online:2017-04-15 Published:2017-04-15
  • Contact: J. Arjuna Ratnayaka, B.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D., J.Ratnayaka@soton.ac.uk.
  • Supported by:

    This work was funded by the National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3R: Grant # NC/L001152/1), the Macular Society, UK, National Eye Research Centre, and the Gift of Sight Appeal.

摘要:

 

年龄相关性黄斑变性(AMD)会引起中枢视力的不可逆损伤,目前还没有针对该疾病的有效治疗措施。研究认为初期病理学发生在AMD视网膜多年之前,而AMD从中年起开始显现并影响大部分老年人群。尽管研究者们已认识到该疾病的遗传以及非遗传/环境风险因素,但复杂的病因使得难以鉴定其易感性,或确定何种类型的AMD会发展,或其在不同个体中的发展有多快。本文总结描述了阿尔茨海默病相关的β淀粉样蛋白(Aβ)组的错误折叠蛋白质是如何在视网膜中积累的。在衰老视网膜中,阿尔茨海默病这个关键驱动因素的发现是出人意料和令人惊讶的。文章认为Aβ根本不同于在老化视网膜中积累的其他物质,并且讨论了来自小鼠模型的最新发现,其中在视网膜下注射生理量Aβ,进而短时间内重现早期AMD的显著特征。文中发现以及其他人的发现表明,在老年人群,包括晚期AMD表型中,供体老化/AMD组织中的Aβ积聚和病理学模式关联紧密地再现,这使得科学家们对研究Aβ介导的视网膜病变的动态方面具有高度的吸引力。此外,文章还讨论了自己的研究结果,其中揭示了Aβ行为在单细胞分辨率,并考虑对神经视网膜功能的长期影响。他们提出Aβ作为切换到患病视网膜表型的关键元件,其现在被用作晚期AMD的生物标记物。

ORCID:0000-0002-1027-6938(J. Arjuna Ratnayaka)

Abstract:

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes irreversible loss of central vision for which there is no effective treatment. Incipient pathology is thought to occur in the retina for many years before AMD manifests from midlife onwards to affect a large proportion of the elderly. Although genetic as well as non-genetic/environmental risks are recognized, its complex aetiology makes it difficult to identify susceptibility, or indeed what type of AMD develops or how quickly it progresses in different individuals. Here we summarize the literature describing how the Alzheimer’s-linked amyloid beta (Aβ) group of misfolding proteins accumulate in the retina. The discovery of this key driver of Alzheimer’s disease in the senescent retina was unexpected and surprising, enabling an altogether different perspective of AMD. We argue that Aβ fundamentally differs from other substances which accumulate in the ageing retina, and discuss our latest findings from a mouse model in which physiological amounts of Aβ were subretinally-injected to recapitulate salient features of early AMD within a short period. Our discoveries as well as those of others suggest the pattern of Aβ accumulation and pathology in donor aged/AMD tissues are closely reproduced in mice, including late-stage AMD phenotypes, which makes them highly attractive to study dynamic aspects of Aβ-mediated retinopathy. Furthermore, we discuss our findings revealing how Aβ behaves at single-cell resolution, and consider the long-term implications for neuroretinal function. We propose Aβ as a key element in switching to a diseased retinal phenotype, which is now being used as a biomarker for late-stage AMD.

Key words: amyloid beta (Aβ), retinal neurons, retina, mouse models, age related macular degeneration (AMD)