Potential New treatments Offer Hope in fight Against Glaucoma
Columbia, MO – Researchers have identified two naturally occurring compounds – agmatine and thiamine – that show promise in preventing neuroinflammatory damage to the retina and potentially halting the progression of glaucoma, a leading cause of irreversible blindness. The findings, published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science in 2025, represent a potential shift in glaucoma treatment, which currently focuses primarily on managing eye pressure.
The study began with identifying chemical abnormalities in the eyes of glaucoma patients. Subsequent laboratory tests on stressed mouse photoreceptor cells revealed that both agmatine and thiamine reduced inflammation and protected the cells from dying. This suggests the compounds could not only slow down nerve cell damage, but potentially reverse some existing damage – a notable advancement over current therapies.
Glaucoma typically results from damage to the optic nerve, often linked to, but not always caused by, elevated pressure within the eye. While existing treatments can slow the disease, they don’t address the underlying neuroinflammation.”Our long-term goal is to see if doctors could one day do a simple blood test to check for these biomarkers,” says researcher Singh, of the University of Missouri. “If they can, hopefully they will be able to catch the disease much earlier, before vision loss occurs, so patients can receive treatment sooner.”
Further research is needed before agmatine and thiamine can be implemented as human treatments, but the initial results offer a hopeful new avenue for combating this debilitating disease.
