Glaucoma is founded on an immunological breakdown – this is the conclusion reached by a group of scientists in Nature Communications, which is based on spotted T-cells in the retinas of glaucoma patients. Is that right, let's find out!
A group of scientists in Nature Communications wrote that glaucoma is based on an immunological breakdown.
Scientists observed mice with glaucoma that had a lower intraocular pressure.
It turns out that there were a lot of T-cells in their retinas. Usually, these cells cannot get in there, but somehow they penetrated.
Are they to blame for the destruction of the optic nerve? In other words, the patientś own blood and immune cells might be ruining their eyesight.
Scientists artificially increased ocular pressure in mice lacking T-cells. And what do you think? Increased eye pressure was unimportant to them.
So why do T-cells enter the retina?
They are irritated by heat shock proteins that appear in response to stress.
Higher pressure causes stress on the eyes. Heat shock proteins help them to work under stress, and if everything is normal then nothing happens. But immune cells are suddenly attacking these proteins as enemies.
In the case of cancer cells, the weak or ¨unhinged¨ immune system takes cancer cells as their own.
With glaucoma, though, the experience and false wisdom of the T-cells are partly to blame. The cells have battle experience with similar bacterial heat shock proteins.
Immune cells sound the alarm and the autoimmune reaction begins, aka Operation Self-Destruction.
But in mice, whose immune systems have never encountered bacteria, glaucoma simply does not develop. No matter how hard you try. The T-cells never enter the retina.
No, this isn’t a “rodent revolution”. In people with glaucoma, there were many, many more T-lymphocytes present than in others, in response to stress-induced heat shock proteins.
So is there a connection between a person’s psychological state and a breakdown in immunity? What do you think?
S.V.
Photo by Krzysztof Niewolny on Unsplash
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Good news for individuals who have already received a glaucoma diagnosis. You see as long as the retina and the brain are communicating with one another through signals. You lose your sight when the conversation ends. So what, it would seem? Additionally, there is an opportunity to develop medicines based on this process, perhaps with gene therapy. Due to the disease's progression, this will aid in maintaining vision.
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According to a statistic, there is a 20% probability that you have glaucoma if you are over 65. Older than 70 – 30%. Older than 85 – 40%
However, there are specific ethnic groupings where the likelihood is higher. African-Americans, Russian Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, and other Eastern Europeans need routine check-ups because they are at a higher risk.
