Page 45 - AWSAR 2.0

Neuronal Degeneration in the Diabetic Eye
|| 21
Dr Harshini Chakravarthy*
Email: harshini@iisertirupati.ac.in
Diabetes currently affects 72.9 million people in India, and this Fig. is predicted to rise to 134.3 million by the year 2045,
which will make the country with the highest number of diabetics in the world according to current estimations by the International Diabetes Federation.
Today, India houses the second largest number of people with type 1 diabetes (caused byinsulindeficiency),type2diabetes(caused by insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion by the pancreas), and undiagnosed diabetes.
While diabetes is growing into an alarming epidemic in urban India, the incidence of devastating long-term complications associated with this disease, such as nephropathy (damage to kidneys), retinopathy
(damage to the retina which lines the back of the eye), and peripheral neuropathy (damage to nerves in hands and feet), is also steadily increasing among patients with diabetes.
The management of DR poses a serious challenge in the clinic, since current approaches for the treatment do not fully prevent or reverse the pathology. Understanding the physiological processes associated with DR is therefore essential for developing new and effective treatment strategies for this debilitating complication of diabetes.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) affects more than one-third of patients with diabetes and is the leading cause of blindness among adults aged 20–74 years. Nearly all patients with type I diabetes and about 60% of patients with type
* Dr Harshini Chakravarthy, Post Doctoral Fellow from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati, is pursuing her research on “Molecular Mechanisms Mediating Diabetic Retinal Neurodegeneration: Role of Cell Adhesion Molecules”. Her popular science story entitled “Neuronal Degeneration in the Diabetic Eye” has been selected for AWSAR Award