DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i05.016

Pages: 1880-1890

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the reasons for severe loss of visual acuity in diabetic patients. Exposure to hyperglycemic environment is the root cause, which activates or increases the rate of several biochemical pathways such as, polyol pathway, PKC pathway and formation of advanced glycation end products in the tissues leading to hypoxia, followed by tissue damage. Oxygen deprivation stimulates the retina to release growth factors causing growth of undesirable blood vessels in the retina, which is the central cause for retinopathy. Laser and anti-VEGF therapies are being used worldwide as a mode of treatment. But newer approaches to an effective treatment with less side effects is always a matter of concern. So several therapeutic agents to block the basic biochemical pathways of pathogenesis are designed and under research. This review focuses on the basic biochemical pathways for the pathogenesis of retinopathy and the drugs designed to block those pathways for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy.