About this Research Topic

Background

Visual impairment and blindness affect around 2 billion people worldwide and has a huge impact on a person's quality of life. One of the challenging questions for any inherited retinal disease is whether a neuroprotective therapy will be sufficient to slow down the ongoing neuronal loss, whether it is mandatory to fix the genetic defect or whether both are necessary. In this Research Topic, we would like to address neuroprotective mechanisms and their translational approaches which can directly benefit several retinal disease conditions.

Neuroprotection is one of the most promising approaches for stopping or slowing degenerative diseases in the retina. For decades, several studies have been performed in animal models showing substantial benefits to slow down or halt degenerative conditions. Although there have been numerous efforts to establish neuroprotective therapies, there is only a handful of successful attempts in the human retina. Therefore, there is an unmet medical need for neuroprotective treatments and approaches. There are also several limiting factors for neuroprotective treatments including lack of detailed knowledge on several neuroprotective mechanisms, absence of animal models for multifactorial retinal diseases, the necessity for precise dosage adjustments, and thus, efficient drug delivery systems.

In this Research Topic, we would like to invite contributions that will provide insights into the novel and existing neuroprotective mechanisms in degenerating retina, recent advances in retinal degenerative diseases and disease mechanisms as well as potential translational approaches.

The themes should include but are not limited to subjects that highlight:

i) Neuroprotective signaling in the retina.
ii) Animal models for neurodegeneration and neuroprotection.
iii) Novel techniques for neuroprotection including gene regulatory tools.
iv) Anti-inflammatory approaches.
v) Identifying and validating biomarkers for neuroprotection and neurodegeneration.
vi) Anti-apoptotic drugs and pathways.
vii) In vitro studies for retinal neuroprotection.
viii) Role of mitochondria and metabolism in neuroprotective pathways.

Keywords: Neuroprotection, Apoptosis, Inflammation, Translational Research, Drug Development, Biomarkers

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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