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Henri Leinonen receives Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc grant
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Dr. Henri Leinonen, postdoctoral scholar in the UCI Center for Translational Vision Research lab was awarded a $70,000 Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc grant. He received the award for the development of disease-modifying therapy for inherited retinal dystrophies by a drug repurposing strategy.
The Knights Templar Eye Foundation is committed to support research that can help launch the careers of clinical or basic researchers committed to the understanding, prevention and cure of vision threatening diseases in infants and children. They support clinical or basic research on conditions that can advance treatment or prevention.
Inherited retinal degenerative (IRDs) diseases lead to visual decline and many of them can cause legal blindness by adolescence. IRDs are a devastating burden for affected individuals and their families. The combined prevalence of IRDs is relatively high in Western countries as roughly one in 2000 people can be affected. Unfortunately, preventive therapies do not exist for these diseases.
"We're hoping existing drugs that have already been accepted for clinical use in other indications could be repurposed and could take a fast-track to clinical evaluation as therapeutics to slow progression of retinal degeneration," said Dr. Leinonen, postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Ophthalmology Research with the UCI School of Medicine. "We have recently shown that a combination of repurposed drugs can significantly slow the disease process and improve vision in several distinct animal models of human retinal degenerative diseases. The treatment has to be tested in clinical trials in a timely manner.”
However, although hypotheses exist about the treatment´s protective mechanisms in the retina, the final proof is missing. The successful clinical application of the drug combination for the treatment of retinal degeneration would greatly benefit from exact mechanistic knowledge as to how it conveys protective effects.
To address this problem, the experiments proposed in the awarded project aims to uncover the molecular mechanisms that support retinal protection using dopamine-agonist drugs, the most crucial component of the previously identified drug combination.
"I'm thrilled to receive this grant. With help of this funding, I hope to find the crucial pieces to the puzzling questions about the mechanistic basis of our therapy. This will help in patient selection for clinical trials, and it will aid in rational development of the treatment concept further”.
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