Dr. Sudhakar Akulapalli Advances Retinal Research
A new development of cell signaling and tumor angiogenesis, reported by Dr. Sudhaker Akulapalli and his research team at Boys Town National Research Hospital, has identified a signaling mechanism that regulates cell death in retinal cells, which may lead to new treatment therapies for patients with Choroidal Neovascularization, a common cause of vision loss, in age-related macular degeneration.
In a number of diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and diabetic retinopathy, as well as choroidal neovascularization in age related macular degeneration (CNV of AMD); it is the uncontrolled growth of new blood vessels that contributes to the disease condition.
The new findings by Dr. Akulapalli’s team in regulating retinal endothelial cell proliferation and the inhibition of new blood vessel formation can eventually lead to the use of naturally existing molecules as a therapy to treat choroidal neovascularization in age related macular degeneration at an early stage.
These initial findings were published October 2009 in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (IOVS) which is the most cited peer-reviewed journal for Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences published by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
Click here for published study.
Co-authors include Boys Town National Research Hospital investigators Chandra. S. Boosani, PhD; Narasimharao Nalabothula, PhD; Dominic Cosgrove, PhD; and Veerendra Munugalavadla, PhD of the Indiana University School of Medicine; Venkateshwar G. Keshamouni, PhD of the University of Michigan Medical Center and Nader Sheibani, PhD of University of Wisconsin School of Medicine.
This study was supported by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute Young Clinical Scientist Award Grant, Dobleman Head and Neck Cancer Institute Grant and research funds of Cell Signaling and Tumor Angiogenesis Laboratory by Boys Town National Research Hospital to Sudhakar Akulapalli, and partly supported by National Institutes of Health grant to Nader Sheibani.