Macrophages as novel targets for ameliorating deleterious complement activation in retinal degeneration

Age related macular degeneration (AMD) accounts for 50% of all cases of blindness in Australia, and accrues an economic cost of just over $5 billion annually. Despite this, limited therapeutic interventions are available, and these are not suitable for the more common dry form of the disease. This proposal addresses an urgent need to gain better resolution of the molecular drivers of AMD, which remains the major gap in the search for effective therapeutic interventions. Both 'wet' and 'dry' forms of AMD are linked to polymorphisms in members of the complement cascade, however the cellular drivers of complement in the retina are poorly understood. The outcomes of this research will be a thorough understanding of the immune involvement in AMD pathogenesis, providing the basis for refined modes of targeting a major inflammatory driver of AMD.