Imaging Retinal Immune Responses
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Characterising Immune Cell Function in the Retina with Advanced Imaging
IRAS ID
312285
Contact name
Colin Chu
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCLH/UCL Joint Research Office
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6264106/2022/11/44, UCL Data Protection Number
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The immune system has a central role in almost every aspect of health and disease. Beyond autoimmunity, allergy and infection, abnormal immunity is seen universally from dementia to atherosclerosis to cancer. Understanding the immune system relies upon identifying what the constituent cells are doing. Our ultimate goal would be to observe real-time, immune cell function in the tissues of living patients at single-cell resolution.
The eye can realise this aspiration, as the transparent nature of ocular tissues makes them inherently suited for repeated in vivo observation. Retina is the key structure capable of detecting light and is an extension of the brain and nervous system. It is far from being immunologically inert as originally believed, has resident immune cells (microglia) and can be profoundly damaged by inflammation during disease.
Whilst direct autoimmune-mediated ocular inflammation (Uveitis) is the exemplar, evidence demonstrates almost every eye disease is either initiated or driven by disordered immunity. For example, age-related macular degeneration is linked with changes in immune genes, whilst immune cells are implicated in diabetic retinopathy. These retinal diseases account for a significant burden of blindness with 253 million people worldwide suffering from visual impairment.
The eye remains the only tissue where individual immune cells can be non-invasively and repeatedly visualised in patients. Single-cell imaging of hyalocytes, the tissue-resident macrophages of the vitreous cavity has been demonstrated in glaucoma, though these mainly reflect the retinal surface. We now have the opportunity to achieve infiltrating immune cell imaging within the retina of patients based upon our laboratory data.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0109
Date of REC Opinion
1 Mar 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion