This review highlights the role of three key immune pathways in the pathophysiology of major retinal degenerative diseases including diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and rare retinal dystrophies. We first discuss the mechanisms how loss of retinal homeostasis evokes an unbalanced retinal immune reaction involving responses of local microglia and recruited macrophages, activity of the alternative complement system, and inflammasome assembly in the retinal pigment epithelium. Presenting these key mechanisms as complementary targets, we specifically emphasize the concept of immunomodulation as potential treatment strategy to prevent or delay vision loss. Promising molecules are ligands for phagocyte receptors, specific inhibitors of complement activation products, and inflammasome inhibitors. We comprehensively summarize the scientific evidence for this strategy from preclinical animal models, human ocular tissue analyses, and clinical trials evolving in the last few years.
Keywords: complement; inflammasome; microglia; mononuclear phagocytes; retina.
© 2018 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.