The retina and optic nerve are parts of the central nervous system. The retina converts light into neural signals while the optic nerve collects axons of retinal ganglion cells and transmits neural signals to the brain. Retinal diseases and optic neuropathies are the leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide, resulting in irreparable neural degeneration. Despite decades of intensive research and many exciting novel discoveries in basic research, effective clinical treatments for retinal diseases and optic neuropathies are still extremely limited. One of the barriers in translational medicine studies includes a lack of clinically relevant animal models. Furthermore, novel diagnostic tools that could repeatadly and sensitively detect structural and functional changes of the retina or the optic nerve and evaluate the visual function of the animal are highly demanded to monitor the disease progression and to test the efficacy and safety of a potential treatment.
To facilitate translational studies, we are organizing this Research Topic entitled "Animal Models and Diagnostic Tools for Retinal Disease and Optic Neuropathy", and call for original articles of novel translatable animal models as well as novel diagnostic strategies to evaluate neural degeneration or regeneration in the field of retinal disorders and optic nerve diseases. The Research Topic is focused, but not limited, to the following subtopics:
- Animal models, either based on common lab animals or new experimental species, for investigation of the pathological progression and cellular mechanism. Models can be either based on common lab animal or new experimental species that exhibit various forms of retinal degeneration or optic neuropathies (drug induced, genetically induced, etc).
- Methods for non-invasively monitoring of the visual function in control and diseased status and efficacy of potential therapeutic strategies.
- Diagnostic tools, including existing methods to reveal specific deficits along the visual pathway from the retina, optic nerve, to the higher visual cortex, or new techniques to reveal specific structures, functions, and cellular mechanisms of the visual system.
The retina and optic nerve are parts of the central nervous system. The retina converts light into neural signals while the optic nerve collects axons of retinal ganglion cells and transmits neural signals to the brain. Retinal diseases and optic neuropathies are the leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide, resulting in irreparable neural degeneration. Despite decades of intensive research and many exciting novel discoveries in basic research, effective clinical treatments for retinal diseases and optic neuropathies are still extremely limited. One of the barriers in translational medicine studies includes a lack of clinically relevant animal models. Furthermore, novel diagnostic tools that could repeatadly and sensitively detect structural and functional changes of the retina or the optic nerve and evaluate the visual function of the animal are highly demanded to monitor the disease progression and to test the efficacy and safety of a potential treatment.
To facilitate translational studies, we are organizing this Research Topic entitled "Animal Models and Diagnostic Tools for Retinal Disease and Optic Neuropathy", and call for original articles of novel translatable animal models as well as novel diagnostic strategies to evaluate neural degeneration or regeneration in the field of retinal disorders and optic nerve diseases. The Research Topic is focused, but not limited, to the following subtopics:
- Animal models, either based on common lab animals or new experimental species, for investigation of the pathological progression and cellular mechanism. Models can be either based on common lab animal or new experimental species that exhibit various forms of retinal degeneration or optic neuropathies (drug induced, genetically induced, etc).
- Methods for non-invasively monitoring of the visual function in control and diseased status and efficacy of potential therapeutic strategies.
- Diagnostic tools, including existing methods to reveal specific deficits along the visual pathway from the retina, optic nerve, to the higher visual cortex, or new techniques to reveal specific structures, functions, and cellular mechanisms of the visual system.
