According to the study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in mice, glaucoma may be an autoimmune disease that can be curable. A glaucoma is a group of eye disorders that damage optic nerve carrying information from the eye to the brain leading to retinal degeneration. It is responsible for elevated pressure in the eye and also blocks the ducts that allow fluid to drain from the eye. In glaucoma, the body’s own T cells are responsible for progressive retinal degeneration. Most treatments focus on lowering intraocular pressure.
However, in many cases, after intraocular pressure returns to normal it becomes more threating. Same was seen in this research on mice. It showed that the body’s own T- cells target proteins called heat shock proteins, that helped them in responding to injuries. It also attacks retinal neurons due to previous interactions with bacteria that normally…
