Influencing factors of poor response to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor drug therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration and therapeutic strategy of targeting pericytes

Abstract

With the increasing aging population, the incidence of wet age-related macular degeneration(wARMD)is gradually rising. The formation of neovascularization leads to recurrent hemorrhage in the macular region, which is one of the main causes of blindness in the elderly. Currently, the primary clinical treatment for wARMD is intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)drugs. However, there are still some patients who have poor or no response to anti-VEGF drugs, resulting in suboptimal or ineffective clinical outcomes. Analyzing the specific influencing factors will be beneficial in guiding clinical decision-making. This article reviews the impact of factors such as advanced age, treatment duration, number of injections, characteristics of neovascular lesions, macular structure, intraocular cytokine levels, and genetics on the response to anti-VEGF therapy. In addition, recent studies have found that pericytes, as cellular components of microvascular walls, can influence the sensitivity to anti-VEGF therapy. This review summarizes the current research on the mechanisms of pericytes in poor or non-response to anti-VEGF therapy and discusses targeted strategies focusing on pericytes.

Keywords

• wet age-related macular degeneration(warmd)
• choroidal neovascularization
• anti-vascular endothelial growth factor(vegf)
• pericytes