DeCure's autonomous Cardio AI scientist is researching a drug-repurposing hypothesis for retinal arterial tortuosity — screening already-approved drugs against its 3-gene Open Targets disease module to publish open-access research. Research is fast; the path to publication is funded in milestone stages.
Disease moduleRetinal arterial tortuosity maps to a 3-gene Open Targets module — the target space DeCure's AI scientist screens approved drugs against.
DeCure.ai methodSignature reversal (LINCS) plus network proximity (STRING) rank already-approved drugs likely to perturb this module — the same engine that produces DeCure.ai's repurposing hypotheses.
Repurposing thesisScreening approved medicines against this disease module, then publishing the evidence for the strongest candidate. Known pharmacology and human exposure data make the first question sharper — they do not establish safety or efficacy in a new indication.
Research record
01
ResearchComing soon
Candidate research + dossier — target rationale, drug-repurposing thesis and evidence pack.proof: Published dossier + on-chain hash
02
ValidationComing soon
In-vitro biological validation at a contract research org (CRO).proof: CRO contract + in-vitro report
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Peer review & paperComing soon
Peer-reviewed paper published open-access (preprint + journal).proof: DOI + open-access link + on-chain hash
Current lead
No approved-drug candidate for retinal arterial tortuosity is corroborated in the literature DeepSearch retrieved. Some conditions are managed with non-pharmacological care — a device, surgery or physical therapy — rather than a medicine; that may be the case here, or the literature we found may simply be too sparse yet to support a drug-repurposing angle.
Molecular view
collagen type IV alpha 1 chain (COL4A1) — COL4A1 is one of the genes genetically linked to this disease in Open Targets — shown as context, not as a drug target we're pursuing: no approved-drug candidate for this disease is yet corroborated in the literature we found.
Loading structure…
helix sheet apo structuredrag to rotate · scroll to zoom
RCSB Protein Data Bank · entry 5NAY · 1.8 Å · ligand none (apo structure). Experimental structure, not a prediction.
What the evidence adds up to
In a 2008 twin study of 218 healthy subjects aged 20 to 46, 13.3% had tortuous retinal arteries, 50.5% had wavy arteries, and 36.2% had straight arteries. Heritability of tortuosity was 82% (95% CI 64 to 92%), with unshared environmental factors accounting for the remaining 18%. Higher mean arterial blood pressure and higher body mass index were both associated with less tortuosity. A 2023 genome-wide association study identified 119 loci associated with retinal vasculature traits, including 89 loci for arteriolar tortuosity; the strongest signal was rs35131825 (p = 2.00 × 10⁻¹⁰⁸). Causal inference analyses in that study indicated that factors linked to arteriolar tortuosity cause elevated diastolic blood pressure, not the reverse.
A 1996 study of 16 healthy volunteers aged 23 to 34 found that retinal haemodynamic indices — arm-retina time, arteriovenous passage time, mean arterial dye velocity, capillary flow velocity, perifoveal intercapillary areas, and foveal avascular zone — showed no significant variation over one year. Reliability indices ranged from 0.61 to 0.87, indicating stable inter-individual ranking. A 2013 study of 16 patients with severe COPD (grade 4) on long-term oxygen therapy found that retinal arterial and venous oxygen saturation decreased significantly when oxygen was withdrawn, and that retinal arterial oxygen saturation correlated well with peripheral arterial oxygen saturation (r = 0.53, p < 0.05). Reproducibility across two study days was high.
A 1967 case report described one patient with arteriosclerotic retinopathy and retinal venous thrombosis treated with Anginin. Visual acuity improved from 0.03 to 0.7, retinal haemorrhages were absorbed, and pipe-stem sheathing of a retinal artery branch decreased, though white sheathing remained partially. The authors noted that Anginin did not prevent retinal veins from turning into white lines. No controlled trial, no sample size beyond one patient, and no replication exist for this finding.
What is still missing: any controlled trial of a drug for retinal arterial tortuosity itself, any study linking tortuosity to a treatable outcome, any replication of the 1967 Anginin case, and any understanding of whether tortuosity is a target or a bystander. The genetic data suggest tortuosity is highly heritable and may be upstream of blood pressure, but no trial design, no patient stratification strategy, and no funding for a drug-repurposing study in this phenotype have been reported.
Evidence
Retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works and resolved on OpenAlex — ranked by citations, including the results that did not work.
British Journal of Ophthalmology · 2008 · 75 citations
Straight versus tortuous retinal arteries in relation to blood pressure and genetics
AbstractBACKGROUND/AIMS: To assess the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on retinal arterial tortuosity and the association between tortuosity and various health indices in healthy young to middle-aged persons. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 57 monozygotic and 52 dizygotic same-sex healthy twin pairs, aged 20 to 46 years, who were characterised by determination of retinal vessel diameters, arterial blood pressure, blood glucose, body mass index, smoking habits and retinal arterial tortuosity, using a three-level grading scale (straight, wavy, tortuous). Heritability of retinal arterial tortuosity was estimated using structural equation modelling. RESULTS: Of 218 subjects, 79 (36.2%) had straight retinal arteries, 110 (50.5%) had wavy arteries, and 29 (13.3%) had tortuous arteries. Heritability of tortuosity was 82% (CI(95 )64, 92%), with unshared environmental factors accounting for the remaining 18% (CI(95 )8, 36%). Increasing values of mean arterial blood pressure and body mass index were both associated with decreasing levels of retinal arterial tortuosity. CONCLUSION: There was a large variation in tortuosity of retinal arteries in these healthy subjects and the predominant determinant was genetic influence, accounting for 82% of the observed variation in tortuosity.
Measurement of Retinal Oxygen Saturation in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
AbstractPURPOSE: There is growing evidence that disturbances in retinal oxygenation may trigger ocular diseases. New instruments allow for the noninvasive measurement of retinal oxygen saturation in humans. The present study was designed to investigate the retinal oxygen saturation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This was also done in an effort to test the validity of retinal oxygenation measurements with a retinal vessel analyzer. METHODS: In all, 16 patients with severe COPD grade 4 who were on long-term oxygen treatment were included in the study. For each patient two identical study days were scheduled. Measurements of retinal arterial and venous oxygen saturation were done using a commercially available instrument for retinal oxygen analysis. Peripheral arterial oxygen saturation values were analyzed with pulse oximetry and via a capillary blood sample drawn from the earlobe. Measurements were performed during oxygen treatment and during a period without oxygen supplementation. Analysis of all images for retinal oxygen saturation quantification was done by a masked investigator. Analysis was done using Pearson's correlation and a multivariate regression model. RESULTS: Arterial and venous retinal oxygen saturation decreased significantly after the cessation of the oxygen therapy. The arteriovenous oxygen difference was unchanged while breathing ambient air or pure oxygen-enriched air. With both Pearson's correlation and the multivariate model, we found significant positive correlation coefficients between retinal arterial and peripheral arterial oxygen saturation as assessed with pulse oximetry as well as between retinal arterial and peripheral arterial oxygen saturation measured in blood samples. The change of oxygen saturation after discontinuation of oxygen supplementation showed a good correlation between retinal arterial oxygen saturation and peripheral arterial oxygen saturation (r = 0.53, P < 0.05). Reproducibility on the two study days was high. DISCUSSION: The present study shows a good correlation between retinal arterial and peripheral arterial oxygen saturation indicating good validity of the technique. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00999024.).
AbstractThe eye is the window through which light is transmitted and visual sensory signalling originates. It is also a window through which elements of the cardiovascular and nervous systems can be directly inspected, using ophthalmoscopy or retinal imaging. Measurements of ocular parameters may therefore offer important information on the physiology and homeostasis of these two important systems. Here we report the results of a genetic characterisation of retinal vasculature. Four genome-wide association studies performed on different aspects of retinal vasculometry phenotypes, such as arteriolar and venular tortuosity and width, found significant similarities between retinal vascular characteristics and cardiometabolic health. Our analyses identified 119 different regions of association with traits of retinal vasculature, including 89 loci associated arteriolar tortuosity, the strongest of which was rs35131825 (p = 2.00×10-108), 2 loci with arteriolar width (rs12969347, p = 3.30×10-09 and rs5442, p = 1.9E-15), 17 other loci associated with venular tortuosity and 11 novel associations with venular width. Our causal inference analyses also found that factors linked to arteriolar tortuosity cause elevated diastolic blood pressure and not vice versa.
Klinische Monatsblätter für Augenheilkunde · 1996 · 1 citations
Schwankungsbreite der perifovealen Mikrozirkulation bei Gesunden*
AbstractBACKGROUND: Fluorescein angiography with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope allows the assessment of retinal hemodynamics. Fundamental for all interpretations of the evaluated data is the knowledge of the physiological variation. In the present study we examined the variability of dynamic and morphologic retinal blood flow indices in healthy subjects over a period of one year. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In sixteen healthy volunteers aged from 23 to 34 years video-fluorescein angiography was repeated nine times in one year. At each term arm-retina-time, arteriovenous passage time, mean arterial dye velocity and capillary flow velocity were assessed. In addition the perifoveal intercapillary areas and the foveal avascular zone were determined at the first and last examination. RESULTS: Statistical analysis of the evaluated data did not show any significant variation of the mean values during the one year follow-up. Reliability indices between 0.61 and 0.87 underline a stable position of each subject to the other participants at the single terms. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that retinal hemodynamics are stable over a one year follow-up in healthy subjects. There are not significant changes to expect in retinal hemodynamics assesses in healthy subjects in one year under constant conditions. The knowledge of the intra- and interindividual variation of retinal blood flow indices allows a correct interpretation of pathophysiologic and pharmacological changes in retinal macro- and microcirculation.
Clinical applications of anginin in ophthalmology. I. A case of the arteriosclerotic retinopathy with the retinal venous thrombosis favorably treated with anginin, especially effects of anginin on white sheating of the retinal artery.
AbstractA case of arteriosclerotic retinopathy associated with retinal venous thrombosis was treated with Anginin and the following results obtained: 1) Visual acuity was improved from 0.03 to 0.7. 2) Retinal hemorrhages were absorbed and pipe-stem sheathing of the branch of retinal artery decrease, with white sheathing remaining partially. 3) It was therefore considered that the pipe-stem sheathing was decreased because Anginin removed venous spasm and improved the blood stream of the branch of the artery, and that the organic changes already established on the arterial wall would remain as white sheathing. 4) Anginin could not prevent retinal veins from changing into white lines. 5) Consequently the authors considered that Anginin may be a drug effectively used for retinal arteriosclerosis and retinal venous thrombosis associated therewith.
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · 2024 · 0 citations
Progress in the treatment of central retinal artery occlusion
AbstractCentral retinal artery occlusion(CRAO)refers to occlusion of the central retinal artery(CRA), which acts as the primary blood supply to the inner neurosensory retina, and leads to an acute loss of vision and permanent visual disability. The natural history of visual prognosis in CRAO is generally poor. Despite a variety of treatment options have been studied, such as ocular massage, anterior chamber paracentesis, hyperbaric oxygen therapy(HBOT)and intra-arterial infusion of tissue plasminogen activator(tPA), but there is currently no evidence-based management strategies for the treatment of CRAO. Furthermore, the efficacy of all available managements is debatable and many have uncertain risks. This review will offer a summary of the currently known treatment options for CRAO and probe into their safety and efficacy on the prognosis of CRAO.
Disease module: DeepOracle (Open Targets). Structures: RDKit from PubChem SMILES. Literature: retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works (targeted per-candidate search), resolved on OpenAlex.
DeCure is a research and publication project, not medical advice and not a treatment. "DeCure for X" describes a research goal, not a claim that a cure exists. Backing a cure is a contribution to fund the research — it is not an investment, and confers no yield, royalty, equity or IP ownership. Papers are published open-access by the DeCure.ai DAO.
