How Aging of the Immune System Affects Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Our goal is to elucidate whether immune aging predisposes to nvAMD progression.

Immune cells, which play a pivotal role in the aberrant blood vessel growth during AMD, are dysregulated with aging. However, little is known about how aged immune cells impacts disease development. In this proposal, we will assess which types of immune cells are modified in a way that increases the risk of AMD during aging. Understanding how immune cells are dysregulated with aging will allow us to gain insight on mechanisms that cause AMD and potentially lead the way to developing targeted interventions.

The current proposal is highly innovative because this study will be the first exploration of the effects of aging of innate immunity on CNV remodeling and subretinal fibrosis formation. The results of the proposed work can also be applied to other neovascular diseases or fibrovascular diseases such as neovascular glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and retinopathy of prematurity.

The currently proposed project explores the fundamental question why nvAMD occurs in aged people and seeks to identify a molecular mechanism that explains why aging accelerates the progression of CNV and subretinal fibrosis formation. These findings will be important to the field of AMD research as they will identify causes, potential therapeutics or prognostic tools for macular degeneration.