Martinez Bridget, Peplow Philip V
Physical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA; Department of Medicine, St. George's University School of Medicine, Grenada.
Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Neural Regen Res. 2021 Mar;16(3):440-447. doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.293131.
A main cause of vision loss in the elderly is age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Among the cellular, biochemical, and molecular changes linked to this disease, inflammation and angiogenesis appear as being crucial in AMD pathogenesis and progression. There are two forms of the disease: dry AMD, accounting for 80-90% of cases, and wet AMD. The disease usually begins as dry AMD associated with retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptor degeneration, whereas wet AMD is associated with choroidal neovascularization resulting in severe vision impairment. The new vessels are largely malformed, leading to blood and fluid leakage within the disrupted tissue, which provokes inflammation and scar formation and results in retinal damage and detachment. MicroRNAs are dysregulated in AMD and may facilitate the early detection of the disease and monitoring disease progression. Two recent reviews of microRNAs in AMD had indicated weaknesses or limitations in four earlier investigations. Studies in the last three years have shown considerable progress in overcoming some of these concerns and identifying specific microRNAs as biomarkers for AMD. Further large-scale studies are warranted using appropriate statistical methods to take into account gender and age disparity in the study populations and confounding factors such as smoking status.
老年人视力丧失的一个主要原因是年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）。在与该疾病相关的细胞、生化和分子变化中，炎症和血管生成在AMD的发病机制和进展中似乎至关重要。该疾病有两种形式：干性AMD，占病例的80-90%，以及湿性AMD。该疾病通常始于与视网膜色素上皮和光感受器变性相关的干性AMD，而湿性AMD与脉络膜新生血管形成有关，导致严重的视力损害。新血管大多畸形，导致在受损组织内血液和液体渗漏，引发炎症和瘢痕形成，并导致视网膜损伤和脱离。微小RNA在AMD中表达失调，可能有助于疾病的早期检测和监测疾病进展。最近两篇关于AMD中微小RNA的综述指出了四项早期研究中的弱点或局限性。过去三年的研究在克服其中一些问题以及确定特定微小RNA作为AMD生物标志物方面取得了相当大的进展。有必要进一步开展大规模研究，采用适当的统计方法，以考虑研究人群中的性别和年龄差异以及吸烟状况等混杂因素。
