Retinal and choroidal angiogenesis: a review of new targets

Abstract

Retinal and choroidal neovascularization are a major cause of significant visual impairment, worldwide. Understanding the various factors involved in the accompanying physiopathology is vital for development of novel treatments, and most important, for preserving patient vision. The intraocular use of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapeutics has improved management of the retinal and choroidal neovascularization but some patients do not respond, suggesting other vascular mediators may also contribute to ocular angiogenesis. Several recent studies examined possible new targets for future anti-angiogenic therapies. Potential targets of retinal and choroidal neovascularization therapy include members of the platelet-derived growth factor family, vascular endothelial growth factor sub-family, epidermal growth factor family, fibroblast growth factor family, transforming growth factor-β superfamily (TGF-β1, activins, follistatin and bone morphogenetic proteins), angiopoietin-like family, galectins family, integrin superfamily, as well as pigment epithelium derived factor, hepatocyte growth factor, angiopoietins, endothelins, hypoxia-inducible factors, insulin-like growth factors, cytokines, matrix metalloproteinases and their inhibitors and glycosylation proteins. This review highlights current antiangiogenic therapies under development, and discusses future retinal and choroidal pro- and anti-angiogenic targets as wells as the importance of developing of new drugs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40942-017-0084-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

MicroRNA-96 Promotes Vascular Repair in Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy—A Novel Uncovered Vasoprotective Function

“…Similarly, our group also detected a sustained choroidal thinning in different animal models of ROP (Shao et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2016;Beaudry-Richard et al, 2018). To date, several studies have focused their effort in developing novel anti-angiogenic monotherapy against the aberrant NV, by using anti-growth factors such as anti-VEGF, -FGF, -IGF and their receptors (Cabral et al, 2017). However, a small number of studies have focused their efforts on attempting to promote and improve revascularization during the initial phase of ischemia, a strategy that should potentially limit subsequent pathologic NV.…”

Up-regulation of pro-angiogenic pathways and induction of neovascularization by an acute retinal light damage

“…It is well known that an increase of bFGF expression induces VEGF up-regulation in endothelial cells forming capillaries 34 . On the other hand, it has been suggested that FGF-induced angiogenesis requires activation of the VEGF system 35 . Indeed, numerous studies have shown that bFGF signaling regulates the VEGF pathway at more than one level.…”

A review of the multifunctionality of angiopoietin-like 4 in eye disease

“…Several compounds that target VEGF have been tested and demonstrate unparalleled effects in randomized clinical trials preventing vision loss, retinal atrophy, and glaucoma in the majority of patients with neovascularization [ 63 , 109 , 110 ]. There are other factors that contribute to neovascular (NV) formation, growth, and persistence, including members of the PDGF family, epidermal growth factor family, angiopoietin-like family, and so on [ 111 ]. Here, we review the aberrant expression of ANGPTL4 in eye diseases and summarize specific its pathogenic functions and possible mechanisms ( Table 1 ).…”