Project Details
Projekt
Adaptive optics retinal camera in retinal neurodegeneration: novel morphological read-out parameters and retinal cellular & vascular reaction following the therapy
Applicant
Privatdozentin Dr. Katarina Stingl
Subject Area
Ophthalmology
Term
from 2018 to 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 399487883
This proposal has following goals (A, B & C) by means of retinal examination with the high resolution rtx1adaptive optics camera (Imagine Eyes, Orsay, France):A) Defining novel morphological read-out parameters of hereditary retinal degenerations, especially those which allow identifying changes accompanying and preceding degeneration and defining optimal regions for novel therapies. The investigations will be conducted as natural history observation. The aim is to describe specific morphologic patterns in the time course of degeneration in defined subgroups of hereditary retinal degenerations via qualitative evaluation of the central 15° retina, and for patients with a stable fixation also quantitative (cell counts) analysis.Special focus will be given onto pigmented cells, presumably macrophages in the tissue, their position and movement in time as well as associated changes of the retinal morphology. Further we will analyze vascular changes such as vessel thickness, wall-to-vessel ratio or perivascular processes.B) Examination of retinal reaction following gene-based viral-vector therapy by quantitative and qualitative analysis of degeneration processes in comparison to the patterns observed in the natural history (see above), immune/inflammatory cells in the tissue and vessel changes after gene therapy. The two latter parameters might be markers of immune reaction after viral-vector based gene therapy in humans in vivo.C) Examination of retinal reaction in posterior uveitisPatients with posterior uveitis will be examined as a control group for evaluation of inflammation processes of the posterior eye pole. The proposal will focus on patients with hereditary retinal degenerations caused by mutations in genes which are currently in consideration for, in preparation for or in running gene therapy trials based on viral vectors (retinitis pigmentosa caused by PDE6A, RPE65 or RPGR mutations, achromatopsia caused by CNGA3 mutations) and patients with Stargardt disease caused by ABCA4 mutations.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
