Queen’s University findings to help in eye disease battle

Uncontrolled growth of blood vessels in the eye can damage the retina and cause blindness.

Currently the main treatment involves an injection not effective for many patients.

Professor Tim Curtis, lead investigator of the study and deputy director at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s said: “Our study has pinpointed a key regulator of abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye that will enable us to design new, better treatments against a number of sight-threatening diseases.”

The study shows that a specific protein in the body called CAMKII acts to co-ordinate different signals that cause new blood vessel growth.

These new findings provide greater understanding of how blood vessels grow and offer a basis for the development of new treatments which are likely to have a significantly higher success rate for patients, researchers said.

Professor Alan Stitt, researcher on the study, said: “These results are exciting and offer the prospect of improved outcomes for the many patients who suffer from sight-threatening diseases.

“Our work is a clear example of how better understanding disease can open up new opportunities for treatment and improve patients’ lives.”

The research was funded by British Heart Foundation Northern Ireland (BHF NI).