Medical College of Georgia scientists searching for new treatment target for diabetic retinopathy

Shruti Sharma, Ph.D. Image credit: Michael Holahan, Augusta University

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University are searching for a new treatment target for a common complication of diabetes that can cause retinal blood vessels to break down, leak or become blocked.

The current treatment standard is anti-VEGF, which targets and blocks the activity of vascular endothelial growth factor, a protein that promotes the growth of blood vessels and causes them to leak. But that treatment doesn't work for everyone.

With a new $1.5 million grant from the National Eye Institute, vascular and endothelial biologist Shruti Sharma, PhD, and a team from the MCG Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, hope to zero in on a new treatment pathway. They suspect the key to that may be a protein called Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a versatile protein involved in both immunity and inflammation throughout the body.

She and her research team think the answer lies in how IL-6 signals or initiates physiological changes in the body.

In preliminary studies, she and her research team found that specifically blocking pro-inflammatory IL-6 signaling, with a drug called sgp130Fc, helped balance levels of two important proteins in the retina. They believe that disruption to that balance is what ultimately leads to the development of diabetic retinopathy.