Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have uncovered a key process contributing to blindness in people with diabetes, paving the way for new preventative treatments.  

The researchers discovered the loss of bloodflow autoregulation during diabetes – one of the earliest effects of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and essential for the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the retina – is caused by the disruption of a protein called TRPV2. They also found disruption of bloodflow autoregulation, even in the absence of diabetes, causes damage resembling that seen in DR.  

Professor Tim Curtis, deputy director at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s and corresponding author, said the new insights are exciting and can be used to inform the development of new treatments. “By identifying TRPV2 as a key protein involved in diabetes-related vision loss, we have a new target and opportunity to develop treatments that halt the advancement of diabetic retinopathy.” 

The study is published by the US journal JCI Insight.