Research Grant

Institution:

City University London

Recipient:

Prof Geoffrey Arden

Project:

Development of a device to prevent or reverse diabetic retinopathy

Summary:

Although the treatment of diabetes with insulin or other drugs is quite successful, the complication of diabetic retinopathy ( DR) is still intractable. It develops insidiously, and leads to rapid loss of vision. Very close control of blood sugar levels can slow the rate of progress down, but still over 75% of diabetic persons of 15 years standing develop this condition.

Expensive screening methods are only partially successful. Surgical treatment is invasive and destructive and therefore can only be employed in fairly advanced cases: it is not always successful.

Great effort has recently been expended in developing drugs to prevent the condition developing or progressing. This focuses on the recent consensus that there is a substance called VEGF that is produced in excess in the retina of people with diabetes, and this is the cause of DR. Early reports suggest that these drugs work, but they have serious disadvantages. They must be injected, every few weeks, directly into the eyeball by doctors as a special procedure. There are serious side effects, and the drugs are also costly.

The applicant has suggested an alternative method of treatment- to remove the conditions that cause the production of VEGF by continuously and mildly light-adapting the eye during sleep.

Small trials to provide proof of the principle are under way but large scale trials require the construction of an electronic “light mask” before they can be authorized. Funding for design and initial production is required.

Amount:

£12,000