Effects of Rho associated kinase inhibitors on glaucoma and current researches

Glaucoma is one of the main causes of blindness in the world, resulting from a slow and progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and their axons.So far, intraocular pressure reduction is the main treatment modality to control disease progression.However, not all the patients benefit from this therapy, and the pathophysiology of glaucoma is not always associated with an elevated intraocular pressure.These limitations, together with the multifactorial etiology of glaucoma, urge the pressing medical need for novel and alternative treatment strategies.Such new therapies should focus on not only preventing or retarding RGCs death, but also repairing the injured axons.Glaucoma optic nerve protection therapy is becoming a hot spot of current research, especially Rho associated kinase (ROCK) inhibitors as a new drug for the glaucomatic neuroprotection, which can reduce intraocular pressure, inhibit scar formation after anti-glaucoma surgery, improve blood circulation, prevent RGCs death and axonal degeneration and induce axon regeneration.In this review, we focused on the research status and progress of the classical signal pathway of ROCK inhibitor in glaucoma optic nerve protection.