Abstract
Presentation Description :
DARC (Detection of Apoptosing Retinal Cells) is a non-invasive real-time imaging technique using confocal laser scanning ophthalmoscopy to visualise single retinal nerve cell apoptosis in vivo through the use of an intravenously administered fluorescent biomarker ANX776.
Recent Phase 1 results suggest it may be a new clinical tool with which to diagnose and identify patients with early and progressing glaucoma, before they lose vision. Furthermore, indications that it predicted future disease progression suggest it may serve as a surrogate biomarker, providing rapid information that could reduce the duration of glaucoma clinical studies, although these findings need to be validated. Phase II trials currently in the analysis stage, have been performed in optic neuritis, Down’s syndrome, and age-related macular degeneration, in addition to glaucoma, to investigate DARC for other indications. Since DARC has been used to successfully assess neuroprotective drugs experimentally in different models of neurodegeneration, it is hoped it can be translated to the clinic to provide a real-time and objective method by which to monitor not only progression of retinal neuronal disease but also response to treatment.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.