Modifying treatment of degenerative retinal diseases. Part 1. Adaptive and non-adaptive retinal plasticity

Abstract

Retinal structural plasticity is manifested in multiple damages of the retina. In many cases, the response to these damages is identical at both the cellular and molecular levels, involves similar sets of cellular signals, and is associated with a change in the structure of the retina and remodeling of the neural connections. The review discusses the common and specific features of adaptive and non-adaptive retinal plasticity, which characterize glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and retinopathy of prematurity. Given the common features of neurodegeneration and retinal plasticity in brain and retinal diseases, similar therapeutic strategies can be used in many cases to preserve the structure connectivity and retinal function, which stop or slow down the clinical evolution of the disease by either suppressing primary events or enhancing compensatory and regenerative mechanisms in the nervous tissue. Part 2 of the review will present neuroplasticity-based modifying therapy methods for retinal degenerative diseases.