# Mechanisms of Early Functional Loss in Diabetic Eye Disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2023 · $187,469

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Diabetes mellitus (DM) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are two major public health challenges that are
anticipated to grow rapidly in the coming decades. Although these two diseases may appear unrelated, there is
emerging evidence that AD is a frequent complication of DM. Indeed, the risk of developing dementia is
increased by 50% to 150% in people with type-2 DM compared with the general population. Importantly,
mounting evidence indicates that DM and AD share retinal neurodegeneration as a core feature. Reliable, non-
invasive biomarkers of early retinal neurodegeneration are needed urgently, particularly as the DM and AD
fields rapidly move towards developing therapeutics that target early-stage disease. This administrative
supplement will allow us to translate our novel approaches for non-invasive measurement of retinal function
that have been developed under the parent award (R01EY026004; Mechanisms of Early Functional Loss in
Diabetic Eye Disease) to study abnormalities of the neural retina in AD. The overarching goals of this
supplement are to apply protocols and knowledge gained from our studies of retinal neurodegeneration in DM
to AD, allowing us to 1) define the cellular source of retinal abnormalities in the 5xFAD mouse model of AD; 2)
determine if these abnormalities provide useful biomarkers for detecting and monitoring the progression of AD.
Aim 1 will characterize the nature and extent of retinal dysfunction in the 5xFAD mouse model of AD using
electroretinography. Aim 2 will quantify abnormalities in retinal thickness and vascular characteristics in the
5xFAD mouse model of AD using optical coherence tomography. These studies will provide essential new
knowledge regarding retinal neurodegeneration in AD and its relationship to neurodegeneration in DM. This
line of study is particularly important and timely as new therapeutic approaches for treating early-stage AD are
being investigated, but biomarkers that can identify early-stage AD lag behind at present.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10711055
- **Project number:** 3R01EY026004-07S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** James JASON McAnany
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $187,469
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2015-12-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10711055

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10711055, Mechanisms of Early Functional Loss in Diabetic Eye Disease (3R01EY026004-07S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10711055. Licensed CC0.

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