The prevalence of U.S. adults diagnosed with diabetes has increased since 2004, to nearly one-third of the population as of 2016. This is concerning because diabetes can cause serious eye diseases and threaten sight, said Dr. Raghu Ganugula, assistant professor of Biomedical Sciences with the College of Community Health Sciences.
“The long-term effects of diabetes mellitus include progressive development of the specific complications of cataracts, retinopathy – and potential blindness,” Ganugula said during a Mini Medical School presentation in February. Mini Medical School is a series of lectures provided each semester through a collaboration of The University of Alabama OLLI program and CCHS.
He is optimistic that ongoing research that combines nutraceuticals and nanotechnology will achieve better outcomes for diabetic patients with eye diseases.
Diabetic eye disease is a group of eye problems, including diabetic retinopathy and cataracts, that can affect people with diabetes. Diabetes affects your eyes when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. High glucose can change fluid levels or cause swelling in the tissues of your eyes that help you to focus, causing blurred vision.
If your blood glucose stays high over time, it can damage the tiny blood vessels in the back of your eyes. Damaged blood vessels may leak fluid and cause swelling. New, weak blood vessels may begin to grow, and these can bleed into the eye, causing scarring or dangerously high pressure inside your eye.
In diabetic retinopathy, damaged blood vessels can harm the retina, the inner lining at the back of the eye that senses light and turns it into signals that your brain decodes so that you can see the world around you. About one in three people with diabetes who are older than age 40 have some signs of diabetic retinopathy, the most common cause of vision loss in people with diabetes.
Cataracts are sometimes called cloudy lenses. The lenses within our eyes are clear structures that help provide sharp vision, but people with diabetes are more likely to develop cloudy lenses. A diabetic person’s chances of developing cataracts are about twice that of someone without diabetes.
Ganugula is involved in research that seeks to treat diabetic eye diseases by combining nutraceuticals and emerging nanotechnology. Nutraceuticals are products that can be used to improve health, delay the aging process and prevent chronic disease. Examples include antioxidants, dietary supplements, vitamins and minerals. Nanotechnology can create materials on a nanoscale that are safe to introduce into the body. Ganugula said applications for nanotechnology in medicine include the delivery of drugs that will treat various diseases, such as diabetic eye diseases.