New findings published in Science Translational Medicine led by Senya’s scientific founders reveal that LRG1 plays a critical role in initiating the earliest stage of retinal damage after diabetes develops. LRG1 causes the cells that wrap around the eye’s smallest blood vessels to constrict excessively and ‘squeeze’ them, reducing oxygen supply to the retina and laying the groundwork for long-term visual impairment.

When LRG1 function was blocked in mouse models of diabetes, this early damage was prevented with preservation of healthy eye function. Diabetic retinopathy affects people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It is typically only treated once symptoms – such as blurred or distorted vision – appear, by which point irreversible damage has already occurred. Even then, current therapies – which target another protein, VEGF – only work for around 50% of patients and rarely reverse existing harm in an impactful way.

This new research shows that LRG1 starts causing eye damage far earlier than VEGF, validating its promise as a new therapeutic target. Unlike current treatments, a treatment that blocks LRG1 (such as Senya’s STX001) could intervene before vision deteriorates and prevent disease progression altogether.