| How It Works |
To
our knowledge, detection of eye disorders, such as diabetes,
age-related macular degeneration, and glaucoma, at their earliest
stages is not yet possible. Just as in other areas of medicine, early
intervention increases the likelihood of clinical success. Thus,
a new clinical paradigm that is rapid, cost effective, and is able to
detect subtle, dynamic, disease-associated changes in the retina is
needed. OcuSciences has bridged this gap by developing a method
to measure metabolic activity in the retina.
Metabolic
energy is required for cell survival. In most retinal diseases,
impaired metabolic activity occurs before irreversible cell damage.
Metabolic stress due to mitochondrial instability results in
mitochondrial flavoprotein enzymes entering into an electron-poor
configuration, rendering the electrons susceptible to blue light
excitation.
Light
stimulated electrons are unstable and fall
back to their original state, emitting green autofluorescent light that
can be measured. Our Retinal Metabolic Analysis (RMA) technology takes
advantage of this phenomenon by measuring retinal
flavoprotein fluorescence that is indicative of reversible
metabolic stress due
to disease before cell death occurs. |  |
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