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Lookup NU author(s): Sarah Hammadi, Nik Tzoumas, Professor Majlinda LakoORCiD, Professor David SteelORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2023 by the authors.The complement system is crucial for immune surveillance, providing the body’s first line of defence against pathogens. However, an imbalance in its regulators can lead to inappropriate overactivation, resulting in diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of irreversible blindness globally affecting around 200 million people. Complement activation in AMD is believed to begin in the choriocapillaris, but it also plays a critical role in the subretinal and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) spaces. Bruch’s membrane (BrM) acts as a barrier between the retina/RPE and choroid, hindering complement protein diffusion. This impediment increases with age and AMD, leading to compartmentalisation of complement activation. In this review, we comprehensively examine the structure and function of BrM, including its age-related changes visible through in vivo imaging, and the consequences of complement dysfunction on AMD pathogenesis. We also explore the potential and limitations of various delivery routes (systemic, intravitreal, subretinal, and suprachoroidal) for safe and effective delivery of conventional and gene therapy-based complement inhibitors to treat AMD. Further research is needed to understand the diffusion of complement proteins across BrM and optimise therapeutic delivery to the retina.
Author(s): Hammadi S, Tzoumas N, Ferrara M, Meschede IP, Lo K, Harris C, Lako M, Steel DH
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Clinical Medicine
Year: 2023
Volume: 12
Issue: 8
Print publication date: 02/04/2023
Online publication date: 14/04/2023
Acceptance date: 03/04/2023
ISSN (electronic): 2077-0383
Publisher: MDPI
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12082870
DOI: 10.3390/jcm12082870
