Research progress on regulation of Ang/Tie signaling pathway in the treatment of ocular neovascular diseases

The emergence of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy has reduced the overall incidence of blindness from ocular neovascular disease.However, frequent intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF therapy are required, which places a significant burden to patients and affects long-term benefits.The angiopoietin (Ang)/tyrosine kinase with immunoglobulin-like and endothelial growth factor-like domains (Tie) pathways are identified as potentially therapeutic regulators for ocular neovascular disease, with additional benefits over anti-VEGF-A therapy.For ocular neovascular diseases, three molecules targeting the Ang/Tie pathway have been studied in clinical trials and the data released, in which faricimab, a bispecific immunoglobulin G1 antibody targeting VEGF-A and Ang-2, entered phase Ⅲ studies and met primary clinical endpoints, and two dosing regimens with prolonged treatment intervals (12 and 16 weeks) of faricimab showed reliable efficacy.Overall, the regulation of Ang/Tie pathway provides a new treatment option for ocular neovascular diseases, and it is necessary to deeply understand the mechanism of action of the pathway and accumulate more clinical data in the future.

Retinal neovascularization; Anti-neovascularization; Ang/Tie pathway