title: The progress in optic nerve regeneration, where are we?
abstract: Optic nerve regeneration is an important area of research. It can be used to treat patients suffering from optic neuropathy and provides insights into the treatment of numerous neurodegenerative diseases. There are many hurdles impeding optic regeneration in mammals. The mammalian central nervous system is non-permissive to regeneration and intrinsically lacks the capacity for axonal regrowth. Any axonal injury also triggers a vicious cycle of apoptosis. Understanding these hurdles provides us with a rough framework to appreciate the essential steps to bring about optic nerve regeneration: enhancing neuronal survival, axon regeneration, remyelination and establishing functional synapses to the original neuronal targets. In this review article, we will go through current potential treatments for optic nerve regeneration, which includes neurotrophic factor provision, inflammatory stimulation, growth inhibition suppression, intracellular signaling modification and modeling of bridging substrates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
authors.forename: Jennifer Wei Huen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Shum
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, and Center of Systems Biology and Human Health, School of Science and Institute for Advance Study, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; GHM Institute of CNS Regeneration, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Kwok-Fai
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4039-4246
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: So
keywords: axonal regeneration; inflammatory stimulation; nerve bridging substances; neurotrophic factor; optic nerve regeneration