Gene transfer to fight ocular neovascularization
(Maité Cachafeiro & Yvan Arsenijevic)

Pathologic angiogenesis occurring in the eye is the hallmark of a variety of acquired diseases such as the wet form of age-related macular degeneration, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, corneal neovascularization or neovascular glaucoma, and is thus the leading cause of blindness in the developed countries. A local anti-angiogenic therapy could be of great benefit for these pathologies. We have developed a lentiviral vector encoding a single chain neutralizing antibody directed against VEGF, a growth factor which plays a crucial role by triggering the neovascularization process. We are currently using this anti-VEGF molecule to study the importance of the balance between pro- and anti-angiogenic factors in neovascular, as well as neurodegenerative processes occurring in the diseased retina. 10.08.10