Targeted Delivery of Mitochondrial Calcium Channel Regulators: The Future of Glaucoma Treatment?

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroscience Vol. 11; p. 648
• Main Authors: Cheung, Leanne T Y, Manthey, Abby L, Lai, Jimmy S M, Chiu, Kin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 22.11.2017; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Aging; calcium; Calcium (intracellular); Calcium (mitochondrial); calcium channel blockers; Calcium signalling; Cancer therapies; Disease; Drug delivery systems; Drug resistance; Glaucoma; Investigations; Ischemia; Mitochondria; mitochondrial drug delivery system; Neurodegeneration; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neuroscience; Optic nerve; Organelles; Oxidative phosphorylation; Oxidative stress; Pathogenesis; Phosphorylation; Regeneration; Regulation; Retina; mitochondrial drug delivery system; calcium; calcium channel blockers; glaucoma; mitochondria
• ISSN: 1662-4548; 1662-453X; 1662-453X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00648

[...]plasma membrane calcium channel inhibitors were recently found to arrest acute axonal degeneration and improve regeneration after optic nerve crush (Ribas et al., 2017). While these direct insults have classically been investigated as the cause of glaucoma-related vision loss, recent evidence indicates that damage to the visual cortex and/or optic nerve (i.e., distal axonopathy), which is then propagated to the retina following stress on axonal transport systems, may play a significant role in the initiation of the disease (Calkins and Horner, 2012; Crish and Calkins, 2015). [...]MCUs are functionally dependent on both intracellular calcium concentration and energy demand (Tsai et al., 2017). Calpain is a calcium-dependent cysteine protease that, once activated, cleaves pro-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2 family members as well as apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) and inner membrane mNCXs (Vosler et al., 2008).