- When to consider referring for low-vision rehabilitation
- The role of sex hormones and aging in dry eye disease
- 3 reasons to read AOA’s newest clinical practice guideline
- Identifying reading difficulties in children
- Mobilizing against myopia
- New AOA clinical guideline puts focus on elevating care of glaucoma patients
- Tips for reinforcing optometry’s role in the broader health care system
- Vision loss makes list of 14 risk factors for dementia
- The ‘gatekeepers of primary eye care’
- Myopia report calls for disease classification, new federal policies
- High-tech solutions for low vision
- Optometrists play an integral role in assessing and treating patients with traumatic brain injuries.
- Primary care of the stroke patient
- Research on eye aberrations not abstract to award-winning scientists
- AOA, CooperVision mobilize to ‘disrupt the status quo,’ advance new standard of care for children with myopia
- What do the experts say on genetic testing for IRDs?
- Pediatric keratoconus prevalence higher than believed, may change care approach
- Making blurry vision clear
- Unblurring the lines
- Appreciating optometry’s value to patients with diabetes and their primary care physicians
- 9 benefits of introducing laser procedures into your practice
- 5 considerations if you’re thinking about adding laser procedures to your practice
- Optometrist-performed YAG capsulotomies shown effective, safe and beneficial for patients
- Proof not positive yet on low-dose atropine for myopia in children
- For 128 million U.S. presbyopes, doctors of optometry can provide treatment options
- What’s up, doc? Can a dietary supplement reverse patient cataracts?
- Legal blindness in America
- AOA webinar addresses concerns about myopia management
- AOA serving patients through research in optometry
- Marijuana sensibilities changing fast: Are you ready for patients’ questions?
- Buzz builds for AOA virtual ePosters event
- New AOA adult eye guideline
- New technology for the advanced AMD patient
- Interprofessional communication for diabetic eye care
- Contact lens experts weigh in on gaps in consumer knowledge
- Align your team on binocular vision disorders
- How to better manage dry eye disease
- eyes the brain and learning
- Can vision intervention slow onset of dementia
- New independent task force recommendation on glaucoma screening underwhelms
- Gene therapy vision rehabilitation for IRDs
- 2022 contact lens controversies
- The latest research from AOA members
- Caring for patients with special needs
- Don’t let the pressure get to you or your patients
- How technology has changed recommendations for visually impaired children
- 12 ways to provide better care for patients with prediabetes and diabetes
- Alzheimers and eyes
- Level up your diabetes care with specialists, services collaboration
- Behind the lens
- Contact lens developments regarding keratoconus
- Managing the care of patients with contact lens-related dry eye
- Lens-based strategies to address reading issues due to mild, disease-related vision loss
- Study shines light on optogenetics in retinitis pigmentosa
- surgical procedures courses
- Genetic Testing and Gene Therapy
- low vision in your practice
- Low percentage of patients with diabetes adhere to key self-care practices
- EBO to produce new glaucoma clinical practice guideline
- details of visual functions immediately following marijuana use
- Understanding Photophobia in mTBI
- New myopia management guidance released
- The challenges of maintaining a healthy tear film
- Integrating models of diabetic eye care
- Dry Eye and Productivity
- Contact lens innovation delivers opportunity
- How face masks affect the eyes
- Marijuana dispensaries still blow smoke over glaucoma effects
- Conjunctival Lymphangiectasia and Fabry
- Techniques to enhance contrast
- Americans remain at high risk for vision loss
- Stimulating eye and vision research
- Allergic conjunctivitis in a COVID-19 world
- Atropine in myopia control
- sleep patients ocular health
- CDC US coronavirus spread expected
- Demystifying dizziness
- Optometry and Glaucoma patients
- 5 reasons why doctors should use AOA diabetes guideline
- Growing epidemic of adolescents and young adults with prediabetes
- Improving scanning efficiency of individuals with homonymous hemianopia
- second edition of diabetes clinical practice guideline
- Pupil patterns in youth a phenomenon
- Study high school sports concussions underscores optometry role in care
- Prototype imager of tear film sublayers opens eyes on dry eye
- Retinal measurements hold clues to Alzheimers disease
- reversing prediabetes to normoglycemia can lessen microvascular complication risk
- Detecting the signs of autism at earlier age using visual cues
- Eye disorder CRISPR technology
- Addressing elderly vision impairment
- The AMD aspirin balancing act
- Study looks at what patients understand about their glaucoma diagnoses
- Vision Rehabilitation Clinical Pearls Lens Rx Prescribing for the Patient with Traumatic Brain Injury
- Real partners in diabetes care
- Amblyopia More than meets the eye
- New mild TBI guideline for children provides opportunity for doctors of optometry
- Reading corneal signs
- Eyes on Alzheimers disease
- Study looks at potential of suppressing ocular cancer in children
- Doctors of optometry are members of post-concussion team
- Glaucoma & Exercise
- The ABCs of MGD
- When T-cells go bad
- Study opens eyes to Alzheimers disease risk
- Understanding MGD
- Sjogren’s dry eye disease and depression
- Are patches the answer to amblyopia
- Oranges may allay AMD risk Pulp fact or fiction
- myopiatech
- Cognitive Decline
- Myopia Genes Discovered
- Link between diabetes and MGD
- alzheimers clues could be found using eye scan
- Genetic markers may help predict elevated IOP
- Ebola vector-borne diseases rear ugly heads again
- Blue lights link to prostate and breast cancers
- Can dyed contact lenses help color perception in CVD patients
- Omega 3 and Dry Eyes
- Glaucoma-Cannabinoid NP Drop
- Genetic Testing for AMD
- Premature Babies Low Birthweight Eyes
- ASD & Accommodative Function
- Stem Cells and Wet AMD
- Sjogren Awareness
- Brain Injury Awareness
- Sleep apneas interplay with corneal hysteresis
- New blood pressure guideline
- Low vision patient future
- Retinoblastoma-detecting ocular cancer in children
- Winter Dry Eye
- Low Vision and Blindness to Double
- New guidelines detecting retinoblastoma in children
- Glaucoma protein biomarker
- Risk for normal-tension glaucoma rises
- Peripheral reaction time faster in deaf adults
- New therapeutic target could reduce diabetic retinopathy
- diabetes on the rise among the young
- Trabeculoplasty Commentary
- Seniors near vision loss dementia risk linked
- Can frequent anti VEGF injections increase glaucoma surgery risk
- Study stresses stress test in treating patients with AMD
- Contact lens helps predict speed of glaucoma progression
- Unique retinal cell dysfunction triggers myopia
- Preeclampsia years later still takes toll
- How tilted optic discs may affect myopic eyes
- New eye test is early detector of diabetes
- Anti VEGF injections may not work for allglaucoma sooner
- New technique could diagnose glaucoma sooner
- Myopia incidence piques control efforts initiatives
- Study links visual impairment to physical and cognitive function declines
- Benefits unfamiliarity proves barrier to diabetes care
- Eyes on Alzheimers
- Association found between TBI and neurodegenerative conditions
- Spotting the link between vision problems and ADHD
- Treating the digital eye
- Statins show continued potential as treatment for dry AMD
- How doctors of optometry can diagnose a rare disorder
- Could eye drops be an alternative treatment to cataract surgery
- Researchers zero in on potential dry AMD treatment
- Ranibizumab proves effective to treat proliferative diabetic retinopathy
- Study shows some drivers with glaucoma naturally adapt
- Doctors of optometry a crucial component in cataract care
- Be part of the national dialogue about diabetes
- Under pressure addressing hypertension
- Gene therapy successful in treating rare retinal disorder
- The lowdown on treating low vision patients
- New study calls attention to importance of carotenoids
- 5 things doctors of optometry should know about concussions
- Can a supplement fight diabetic retinopathy
- Outdoor activity may reduce risk for myopia in children
- 3 reasons comprehensive exams matter for diabetes
- Diabetes and Prediabetes
- Vitamin C may slow progress of cataracts
- Multifocal contact lens effective at treating myopia in kids
- New tool educates and motivates patients with diabetes related eye disease
- Myopia Its in your genes too
- Out of the box thinking leads to potential glaucoma treatment
- Doctors of optometry have big role in catching giant cell arteritis before blindness
- Cataract surgery lessens death risk
- Novel glaucoma therapy One ring to help them all
- Common glaucoma drugs may affect IOP measurements
- Gene mutation uncovers potential treatment for rare form of pediatric glaucoma
- How astigmatism affects reading fluency
- FDA approves first corneal cross linking system for treatment
- Cataracts and UV exposure in driver-side windows
- Virtual model aids diabetic retinopathy progression understanding
- doctors of optometry AMD assessments comparable to ophthalmologistsoutcomes
- Parkinsons detectable through eye exam
- Are sleep apnea and asthma linked to keratoconus
- Not a dry eye
- Eye on head injuries
- Risk for macular degeneration linked to low levels of vitamin D
- Tears now fears Zika persists in eyes
- Myopia Controlling the heretofore uncontrollable
- advancing keratoconus care
- visual dysfunction after brain injury
- Study detects early biomarkers for risk of developing diabetic retinopathy
- Prevalence of Undiagnosed AMD
- Daily use of steroid drops increases risk for ocular hypertension
- Zikababy
- New study dry eye disease
- Encyclopedia of dry eye disease released
- Clinical Pearls for Seasonal Allergies
- Doctors of optometry less likely to prescribe seldom needed antibiotics for conjunctivitis
- T cells hold promise of treatment for preemies born with eye condition
- Youth Concussions
- New imaging techniques detect earlystage Alzheimer’s disease
New discoveries aid understanding of the visual system
April 13, 2022
The AOA’s Investigator Initiated Research Award recipient is working to identify the role a specific protein plays in lens cells—and how it could affect people with Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts and myopia. Learn about the research and how you can apply for research support from the AOA.
Excerpted from page 56 of the March/April 2022 edition of AOA Focus.
Timothy Plageman Jr., Ph.D., associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Optometry, is the recipient of the AOA’s Investigator Initiated Research Award. This award is intended to support innovative, independent research relative to the continuum of eye and vision care.
Learn more about Dr. Plageman’s research.
Why did you pursue this line of research?
As a cell and developmental biologist, I have had a long-standing interest in understanding the function of protein complexes that mediate adhesion between cells during the development and physiology of the visual system. This is an important subject of investigation because adhesion between cells of the lens is thought to be essential to maintain tissue transparency and refract light. By studying lens cell adhesion, we could ascertain why these functions fail and cause the lens to become opaque during cataract rogression.
What is the premise for your research?
Recently, we discovered that a particular gene that encodes a cell adhesion protein (called ARVCF) is required to maintain transparency of the lens with age in mice. As it turns out, mutations in a distinct but very similar gene with a different name (CTNND2) are associated with cortical cataracts and myopia in people, but its role in the lens has not yet been determined. We plan to identify the role this protein plays in lens cells.
How can this data help inform our understanding of eye disease?
We were surprised to find that the CTNND2 protein is only found in a specialized adhesion structure that forms at the conjunction of three distinct lens cells. Because of CTNND2’s association with lens disorders, it demonstrates that this adhesion structure may not function normally and may underlie the etiology of cataracts and/or myopia.
Why is it important for optometry to be involved in basic research?
Elucidating the mechanisms and processes that underlie how the visual system functions serves as a basis for advances in biomedicine that can help protect and improve vision.
How far off is the immediate clinical impact of any findings?
The clinical impact of basic science research is always difficult to predict. However, the discoveries made from this research can not only aid our understanding of the visual system but also increase our knowledge of other scientific and clinical areas. For example, because disruptions to CTNND2 have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, as well as cataracts and myopia, the results from this study have the potential to inform us how it functions in cells of the brain and the pathophysiology of dementia and other types of neurological disorders.