Recent advances in signaling pathways related to choroidal neovascularization

Abstract

Choroid neovascularization is the characteristic pathological change of many fundus diseases and is the most common cause for severe vision loss and metamorphopsia. Among the pathogenic factors, VEGF is considered to be the most important and treatment targeting VEGF showed promising results. However, anti-VEGF agents need to be administrated frequently and they are usually expensive. Also, some patients got no response to this treatment. These facts force us to find other pathway that involves in the formation of CNV. This article reviews the latest research on CNV-related signaling pathways so as to provide a deeper look into CNV and hopefully point out new directions for treating diseases that share similar pathogenesis.

Keywords

• choroid neovascularization
• VEGF signaling pathway
• Wnt signaling pathway
• Shh signaling pathway
• TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway
• Notch signaling pathway