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Retinal Degenerative Diseases pp 439–445Cite as

Current Pharmacological Concepts in the Treatment of the Retinitis Pigmentosa

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Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1074))

Abstract

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) encompasses a heterogeneous group of inherited retinal disorders characterized by progressive photoreceptor and/or retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) degenerations with a prevalence approximately 1 in 4000 in the general population. Over 70 causative genes have been defined in RP families, and a number of animal models have been identified so far. However there have been no widely recognized treatments able to recover or reverse the degenerating retina, to prevent the disease deterioration, ultimately to restore the remaining vision. Therapeutics advancements have been achieved including gene therapy, pharmacotherapy, cell replacement, neurotrophic factors, and retinal prosthesis. In this review, we focus on the pharmaceutical drugs for RP with emphases on the context of drug discovery, development, and clinical translation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, The State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base and Key Laboratory of Vision Science, Ministry of Health, Wenzhou, China

    Xiu-Feng Huang

Authors
  1. Xiu-Feng Huang
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

    John D. Ash

  2. Ophthalmology and Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

    Robert E. Anderson

  3. School of Medicine Beckman Vision Center, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Matthew M. LaVail

  4. Departments of Ophthalmology and Cell Biology, Duke Eye Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA

    Catherine Bowes Rickman

  5. Division of Ophthalmology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Joe G. Hollyfield

  6. Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Christian Grimm

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Huang, XF. (2018). Current Pharmacological Concepts in the Treatment of the Retinitis Pigmentosa. In: Ash, J., Anderson, R., LaVail, M., Bowes Rickman, C., Hollyfield, J., Grimm, C. (eds) Retinal Degenerative Diseases. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1074. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75402-4_54

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