Search

The autotaxin-lysophosphatidic acid (ATX-LPA) signaling pathway plays a role in a variety of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or neurodegeneration. A link to the pathogenesis of glaucoma is suggested by an overactive ATX-LPA axis in aqueous humor samples of glaucoma patients. Analysis of such samples suggests that the ATX-LPA axis contributes to the fibrogenic activity and resistance to aqueous humor outflow through the trabecular meshwork. In order to inhibit or modulate this pathway, we developed a new series of ATX-inhibitors containing novel bicyclic and spirocyclic structural motifs. A potent lead compound (IC 50 against ATX: 6 nM) with good in vivo PK, favorable in vitro property, and safety profile was generated. This compound leads to lowered LPA levels in vivo after oral administration. Hence, it was suitable for chronic oral treatment in two rodent models of glaucoma, the experimental autoimmune glaucoma (EAG) and the ischemia/reperfusion models. In the EAG model, rats were immunized with an optic nerve antigen homogenate, while controls received sodium chloride. Retinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) was induced by elevating the intraocular pressure (IOP) in one eye to 140 mmHg for 60 min, followed by reperfusion, while the other untreated eye served as control. Retinae and optic nerves were evaluated 28 days after EAG or 7 and 14 days after I/R induction. Oral treatment with the optimized ATX-inhibitor lead to reduced retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss in both glaucoma models. In the optic nerve, the protective effect of ATX inhibition was less effective compared to the retina and only a trend to a weakened neurofilament distortion was detectable. Taken together, these results provide evidence that the dysregulation of the ATX-LPA axis in the aqueous humor of glaucoma patients, in addition to the postulated outflow impairment, might also contribute to RGC loss. The observation that ATX-inhibitor treatment in both glaucoma models did not result in significant IOP increases or decreases after oral treatment indicates that protection from RGC loss due to inhibition of the ATX-LPA axis is independent of an IOP lowering effect., Competing Interests: DH, PM, PS, PD, JH, MGR, JB, MS, BG, SM, RG, and CU are employees at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Hunziker, Reinehr, Palmhof, Wagner, Biniasch, Stute, Mattei, Schmitz, DiGiorgio, Hert, Rudolph, Benz, Stihle, Gsell, Müller, Gasser, Schonhoven, Ullmer and Joachim.)

This article describes a mass spectrometric data set from rat retinae spiked with indexed Retention Time (iRT) peptides. The provided data set can be used as a spectral library to investigate for instance eye disorders as well as ocular function by data-independent acquisition (DIA) based mass spectrometry. Consequently, there is no urgent need to create an own spectral library, which requires money, time, effort as well as tissue. Besides the use as a spectral library, this data set can improve our knowledge about proteins present in the rat retina and thus the protein pathways within this tissue. The data set may also help to determine optimal parameters for peptide identification by mass spectrometry. To generate the presented data set, six rat retinae were homogenized with glass beads and pooled. The pooled sample was fractionated by SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) followed by tryptic in-gel digestion. The fractionation of the pooled sample was repeated for further 4 times, to end up with in total 5 technical replicates. Peptide extracts were spiked with iRT peptides and analyzed by data-dependent (DDA) nanoHPLC-ESI-MS/MS resulting in 60 files. All resulting data files are hosted in the public repository ProteomeXchange under the identifier PXD021937., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships, which have, or could be perceived to have, influenced the work reported in this article., (© 2021 The Authors.)

Mechanisms and progression of ischemic injuries in the retina are still incompletely clarified. Therefore, the time course of microglia activation as well as resulting cytokine expression and downstream signaling were investigated. Ischemia was induced in one eye by transiently elevated intraocular pressure (60 min) followed by reperfusion; the other eye served as a control. Eyes were processed for RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry analyses at 2, 6, 12, and 24 h as well as at 3 and 7 days. Already 2 h after ischemia, more microglia/macrophages were in an active state in the ischemia group. This was accompanied by an upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, like IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα, and TGFβ. Activation of TLR3, TLR2, and the adaptor molecule Myd88 was also observed after 2 h. NFκB revealed a wave-like activation pattern. In addition, an extrinsic caspase pathway activation was noted at early time points, while enhanced numbers of cleaved caspase 3 + cells could be observed in ischemic retinae throughout the study. Retinal ischemia induced an early and strong microglia/macrophage response as well as cytokine and apoptotic activation processes. Moreover, in early and late ischemic damaging processes, TLR expression and downstream signaling were involved, suggesting an involvement in neuronal death in ischemic retinae. Graphical Abstract.

Retinal ischemia leads to an early severe damage of the retina and thus plays an important role in eye diseases such as angle-closure glaucoma or retinal vascular occlusion. In retinal diseases, there is common sense about the affection of the optic nerve by ischemic injury. However, the exact dynamic processes of this optic nerve degeneration are mainly unclear. In this study, retinal ischemia was induced in one eye of Brown-Norway rats by raising the intraocular pressure 60 min to 140 mmHg followed by natural reperfusion. Optic nerves were analyzed at six different points in time: 2, 6, 12, and 24 h as well as 3 and 7 days after ischemic injury. Cell infiltration and moreover signs of tissue demyelination and dissolution were noticed in optic nerves 7 days after ischemia (hematoxylin & eosin: p < 0.001, luxol fast blue: p = 0.04). Although microglial activation was verified already from 12 h on after ischemia (p = 0.030), the beginning of a structural degeneration of the neurofilament was seen at 3 days (p = 0.02). Interestingly, proliferative microglia were present later on (7 days: p = 0.017). At this point, the number of total microglia was also increased in ischemic nerves (p = 0.003). Concluding, our data indicate that not only retinal tissue is affected by an ischemia, the optic nerve also demonstrates progressive damage. Interestingly, a microglia activation was noted days before structural damage became visible., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Glaucomatous neurodegeneration represents one of the major causes of irreversible blindness worldwide. Yet, the detailed molecular mechanisms that initiate optic nerve damage and retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss are not fully understood. Members of the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) superfamily are key players in numerous neurodegenerative diseases. In order to investigate the potential functional relevance of the PTP megakaryocyte 2 (Meg2) in retinal neurodegeneration, we analyzed Meg2 knockout (KO) and heterozygous (HET)-synonym protein-tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 9 (Ptpn9)-mice. Interestingly, via global microarray and quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) analyses of Meg2 KO and HET retinae, we observed a dysregulation of several candidate genes that are highly associated with retinal degeneration and intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation, the main risk factor for glaucoma. Subsequent IOP measurements in Meg2 HET mice verified progressive age-dependent IOP elevation. Ultrastructural analyses and immunohistochemistry showed severe optic nerve degeneration accompanied by a dramatic loss of RGCs. Additionally, HET mice displayed reactive micro-/macrogliosis and early activation of the classical complement cascade with pronounced deposition of the membrane attack complex (MAC) in the retina and optic nerve. When treated with latanoprost, significant IOP lowering prevented RGC loss and microglial invasion in HET mice. Finally, electroretinogram (ERG) recordings revealed reduced a- and b-wave amplitudes, indicating impaired retinal functionality in Meg2 HET mice. Collectively, our findings indicate that the heterozygous loss of Meg2 in mice is sufficient to cause IOP elevation and glaucomatous neurodegeneration. Thus, Meg2 HET mice may serve as a novel animal model to study the pathomechanism involved in the onset and progression of glaucoma.

Neuronal damage and impaired vision in different retinal disorders are induced, among other factors, by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Since the mechanisms and the progression of ischemic injury are still not completely clarified, a timeline of this retinal degeneration is needed. In this study, we investigated protein and mRNA alterations at 2, 6, 12, and 24 h as well as 3 and 7 days after ischemia to determine the course of an ischemic insult through the whole retina. Moreover, functional analyses were performed at later stages. We detected a significant functional loss of cells in the inner nuclear layer and photoreceptors at 3 and 7 days. Additionally, the thickness of the whole retina was decreased at these points in time, indicating a severe degradation of all retinal layers. Immunohistological and qRT-PCR analyses of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), glial cells, AII amacrine, cone and rod bipolar as well as cone and rod photoreceptor cells confirmed this first assumption. Our results show that all investigated cell types were damaged by ischemia induction. Especially RGCs, cone bipolar cells, and photoreceptor cones are very sensitive to I/R. These cells were lost shortly after ischemia induction with a progressive course up to 7 days. In addition, Müller cell gliosis was observed over the entire period of time. These results provide evidence, that I/R induces damage of the whole retina at early stages and increases over time. In conclusion, our study could demonstrate the intense impact of an ischemic injury. The ischemic defect spreads across the whole retina right up to the outer layers in the long-term and thus seems to impair the visual perception already during the stimulus processing. In addition, our findings indicate that the cone pathway seems to be particularly affected by this damage.

Retinal ischemia is an important factor in several eye disorders. To investigate the impact of VEGF inhibitors, as a therapeutic option, we studied these in a retinal ischemia animal model. Therefore, animals received bevacizumab or ranibizumab intravitreally one day after ischemia induction. Via electroretinography, a significant decrease in a- and b-wave amplitudes was detected fourteen days after ischemia, but they were reduced to a lesser extent in the ranibizumab group. Ischemic and bevacizumab retinae displayed fewer retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), while no significant cell loss was noted in the ranibizumab group. Apoptosis was reduced after therapy. More autophagocytotic cells were observed in ischemic and bevacizumab eyes, but not in ranibizumab eyes. Additionally, more microglia, as well as active ones, were revealed in all ischemic groups, but the increase was less prominent under ranibizumab treatment. Fewer cone bipolar cells were detected in ischemic eyes, in contrast to bevacizumab and ranibizumab-treated ones. Our results demonstrate a reduced apoptosis and autophagocytosis rate after ranibizumab treatment. Furthermore, a certain protection was seen regarding functionality, RGC, and bipolar cell availability, as well as microglia activation by ranibizumab treatment after ischemic damage. Thus, ranibizumab could be an option for treatment of retinal ischemic injury.