According to estimates from the World Health Organization, approximately 250 million people worldwide suffer from glaucoma. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide, accounting for approximately 8% of the total number of blind people.
With glaucoma treatment facing difficulties, some studies have shown that using NMN for treatment may be a promising direction.
NMN is the precursor of NAD+ and can increase the level of NAD+ in cells.
Today, the paper that the director wants to discuss with you also starts from this direction.
So what exactly is the therapeutic potential of NAD supplements in glaucoma?
NAD Supplements (NMN) for Glaucoma Treatment
In people with glaucoma, the fluid in the eye moves abnormally, causing intraocular pressure to rise. High intraocular pressure puts pressure on structures inside the eye, especially the optic nerve, which is an important nerve that connects the eyeball to the brain.
This damage causes the progressive death of optic nerve cells and degeneration of related structures in the fundus of the eye, such as the optic nerve head and optic cup. At the same time, the optic nerve fiber layer on the retina can also be damaged.
In a groundbreaking study, researchers investigated the neuroprotective potential of oral NMN in DBA2J mice. DBA2J mice are a type of mouse that exhibits spontaneous pigmentary glaucoma during aging.
based on the data, they conducted chronic oral NMN prevention or intervention experiments on glaucoma mice.
The prevention group was given NMN when the mice were 6 months old, and the intervention group was given NMN when the mice were 9 months old.
The results of the study showed that mice given NMN showed increased NAD+ content in the retina, while retinal ganglion cell loss and optic nerve degeneration were greatly reduced.
Additionally, NMN improved retinal function.
Taken together, this study demonstrates that oral administration of NMN can provide neuroprotection in mice with spontaneous pigmentary glaucoma.
This may be because NMN, as a precursor of NAD+, helps maintain the function of cellular energy metabolism and antioxidant defense systems, thereby reducing the loss of retinal ganglion cells and optic nerve damage, while improving retinal function.
As a safe compound, NMN has been shown to improve optic nerve cell survival and function in preclinical and proof-of-concept clinical trials, which brings hope for neuroprotection in glaucoma treatment.
However, there are still some unresolved issues and challenges. More experiments are needed to verify whether therapeutic strategies against PAD and metabolic NAD precursors and SARM1 inhibitors can truly be used as neuroprotective therapies for glaucoma patients.
