Most people who develop PCO are fine with a further treatment, but
others are at risk for additional problems, including damage to their
retinas, Duncan said. Its much better to prevent PCO in the first
place.
Her research on this issue has been continuously funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), a division of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), since 2004, and the institute recently awarded her a four-year
grant renewal for the project of $1.37 million. Duncan said her research
team has already discovered several molecules that are critical for the
formation of PCO scar tissue.
We hope to identify clinical interventions to block this potentially
blinding condition, she said. Thats what were working on now a
drug that would shut this process down.
In another active research project, initiated with support from both a
Shovel-Ready Pilot Grant from the Delaware Center for Translational
Research and a dual core access award from Delaware INBRE
(the IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence), Duncan is
investigating the mechanisms that operate immediately after cataract
surgery to trigger PCO.
In researching that process, Duncan made a novel discovery, finding
that the lens cells left behind after surgery produce molecules that may
be the primary triggers for post-surgical eye inflammation.
This was important because doctors prescribe general
anti-inflammatory eye drops to be used in the days after cataract
surgery to prevent pain and damage to the retina. The finding also
relates to PCO, as inflammation is known to drive scar tissue formation
in other organs. This work opens up the possibility that the exact cause
of inflammation could be determined, allowing for a more targeted
therapy to be used in the future, Duncan said.
Normally in the eye, lens cells
are completely walled off from the immune system and have no resemblance
to immune cells, she said. But it turns out that an injury to the
lens, such as surgery, changes that. The data really surprised us
because this was completely unknown before.
These findings are the focus of a recent paper published by Duncans group in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
The recently published research on injured lens cells as mediators of
inflammation led this work to be supported by both a second recent
grant from the NEI, a four-year award of $1.53 million, as well as
$46,800 in additional funding to expand the scope of the work to
investigate how age affects this process.
About Melinda Duncan
Duncan is a professor of biological sciences at UD, as well as
director of the Education and Professional Development Core of Delaware
INBRE and associate director of the Center for Biomedical Research
Excellence (COBRE) in Discovery of Chemical Probes and Therapeutic
Leads.
She is an editorial board member of Investigative Ophthalmology and
Visual Sciences and a trustee of the Association for Research in Vision
and Ophthalmology.
Duncan earned her doctorate at the University of Medicine and
Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers
University. She conducted postdoctoral research at the National Eye
Institute.
Article by Ann Manser; photos by Evan Krape and courtesy of Melinda Duncan