Understanding Optic Nerve Disease
The optic nerve is the
essential link between eye and brain that makes vision possible. If the optic
nerve is seriously affected by disease or damaged through trauma or a tumor,
visual loss or blindness may result.
The major optic nerve diseases are:
Glaucoma
Toxic Optic Nerve Disease
Ischemic Optic Neuropathy
Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON)
Together, they affect millions of people
worldwide. Optic nerve disease of other types are no less important for their
impact on individuals and families and for understanding the mechanisms of
optic nerve disease.
The understanding and definition of optic nerve disease began to change in
the 1980's with a series of neuroscientific discoveries that helped explain
the process by which nerve cells, including those in the optic nerve, die.
One major cause of nerve cell death is an insufficient supply of energy which
nerve cells derive from oxidative metabolism. By depriving optic nerve cells of
energy they are prone to a destructive cascade of events which may kill them.
This discovery and related investigations of the mechanisms involved in nerve
cell death, have broadened the understanding of how the optic nerve is damaged
when it becomes diseased. It is now known that visual loss and blindness
may result not only from physical insult (trauma) and decreased blood supply
to the optic nerve, but also from disease that originates in the optic nerve
itself.
The research in optic nerve disease
is promising and exciting
to scientists and physicians in many disciplines.
They are now involved in research related to further understanding
of optic nerve disease, prevention, and therapy. Therapies designed to protect
the optic nerve from disease are being developed.
Projects
Our Projects
section keeps you up to date in
IFOND sponsored research.
Research in optic nerve disease is taking place in laboratories around the
world. If you would like to contribute to this effort by volunteering or Donating, please
contact IFOND.
Your help may be of great assistance to the current search for therapies. Thank you for your interest!
Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, though the most common of all mitochondrial genetic diseases, is still relatively rare. Registering patients and genetic carriers in large numbers is very useful to allow adequate power in studies to progress our understanding of disease processes and guide therapies.
Learn about registering patient and carrier data for research on LHON.
