Research progress on clinical effectiveness, mechanism and safety of visible red light irradiation in the treatment of myopia

In recent years, treatment of myopia with low-intensity 600-670 nm red light irradiation has attracted extensive attention.A one-year multi-center clinical study in China showed that red light therapy can inhibit axial elongation and the progression of myopia in myopic children.Nevertheless, the underlying mechanism and long-term safety are still to be determined.The longitudinal chromatic aberration theory could explain its effect on retarding myopia in chicks and guinea pigs.However, studies on different species had inconsistent conclusions and even contrary results in primates.The possible mechanisms of its efficacy on myopia control include the temporary increasing choroidal blood flow to mitigate scleral hypoxia, affecting the metabolic signal pathway of cones, stimulating the retina to secrete dopamine through intensive irradiation, affecting circadian rhythm, and stimulating cytochrome C oxidase to reduce oxidative stress to promote cell repair and inhibit apoptosis.In terms of safety, studies revealed the biphasic dose response in red light therapy, that is to say, no adverse event has been reported for low-intensity, low-dose and short-time red light irradiation, but it is necessary to stay alert for photoreceptor cell and retinal pigment epithelium cell damage caused by excessive irradiation.This article reviewed the research progress on the clinical effectiveness, therapeutic mechanism and safety of red light irradiation in the treatment of myopia to provide a theoretical basis for its use in clinical treatment.

Myopia; Therapeutics; Safety; Red light; Therapeutic mechanism