Ocular diseases such as cataract, glaucoma and retinopathy are the leading causes of blindness. Among them, glaucoma and retinopathy causes irreversible blindness. Current treatment for both diseases provides suboptimal efficacy. Therefore, newer therapeutic approaches with downstream targets to either modify risk factors persistently or provide direct neuroprotection are widely investigated. Considering the socioeconomic impact of glaucoma-related blindness, it is of great scientific interest that the ongoing developments in this area are discussed at international scientific platforms to disseminate and stimulate new ideas and approaches.
In response to this area of interest, Centre for Neurosciences (NeuRon) in collaboration with Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia had organized a Symposium entitled “Current Perspective of Ocular Pharmacology: Focus on Glaucoma and Retinopathy” on 24th October 2019 followed by the “3rd International Congress of Physiology and Pharmacology” from 30th October to 1st November 2019 in Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.
In line with the proposed symposium, Associate Prof. Dr. Igor N. Iezhitsa (UiTM) presented a keynote lecture with the title “Meeting the Challenge of Glaucoma: Is Magnesium Acetyltaurate (MgAT) an option to consider?” In his earlier publication, his research team had highlighted that considering the enhanced efficacy of MgAT particularly on pre-treatment, it is likely that MgAT primarily has a therapeutic potential as a protective agent in high risk individuals. Moreover, development of appropriate formulations to administer MgAT non-invasively would be the key to its clinical application. For more research in this area, please refer https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2852-8486.
Other symposium speakers from the Faculty of Medicine, included Associate Prof. Dr. Anna Krasilnikova, Dr. Norhafiza Razali and Dr Nurul Alimah Abdul Nasir. Both the symposium and congress provided an opportunity for all participants who attended very invaluable educational sessions and a platform to gain further insight on ocular pharmacology.
“Reconnect Your World with New Knowledge”
Prepared by : Nurul Alimah Abdul Nasir (Dr.) UiTM, Igor Iezhitsa (Dr.) UiTM
Edited by : Leny Suzana Suddin (Dr.) UiTM
Assoc.Prof Dr. Geetha Subramaniam, Fellow, InQKA, UiTM