• Andrea Matteucci, Laura Ricceri, Alessia Fabbri, Andrea Fortuna, Sara Travaglione, Marco Guidotti, Andrea Martinelli, Marika Villa, Flavia Pricci, Zaira Maroccia, Gabriele Campana, Fiorella Malchiodi-Albedi, Carla Fiorentini, and Stefano Loizzo.
• National Center for Drug Research and Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy.
• Neuroscience. 2019 Jul 15; 411: 119-129.

AbstractIn hypertensive retinopathy, the retinal damage due to high blood pressure is accompanied by increased expression of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP), which indicates a role of neuroinflammatory processes in such a retinopathy. Proteins belonging to the Rho GTPase family, particularly Rac1, are involved in the activation of Müller glia and in the progression of photoreceptor degeneration, and may thus represent a novel candidate for therapeutic intervention following central nervous system inflammation. In this paper, we have observed that topical administration as eye drops of Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factor 1 (CNF1), a Rho GTPase modulator, surprisingly improves electrophysiological and behavioral visual performances in aged spontaneously hypertensive rats. Furthermore, such functional improvement is accompanied by a reduction of Rac1 activity and retinal GFAP expression. Our results suggest that Rac1 inhibition through CNF1 topical administration may represent a new strategy to target retinal gliosis.Copyright © 2019 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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