ROP research for a brighter future

For more than two decades, Mary Elizabeth (M.E.) Hartnett, MD, faced skepticism as she tirelessly pursued a novel line of research on retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) that she suspected could yield more effective treatments for premature babies who are at risk of being blinded by the disease. Now her data is showing she may have been right.

“We are really excited about the direction our research is going,” Hartnett said. “We believe it will lead to new treatments that will benefit premature infants of all walks of life throughout the world.”

Hartnett, the Michael F. Marmor, M.D. Professor in Retinal Science and Diseases and professor of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute, is a well-known expert on ROP. For her research on the disease, she won the Weisenfeld Award — the highest award for clinician-scientists given by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). Hartnett also literally wrote the book on the topic: her book, Pediatric Retina, is a critical resource in ophthalmology and is now in its third edition.

But Hartnett’s recent research on ROP, published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, is among the most personally gratifying for her because it provides clinical evidence supporting over 20 years of her work in her basic science laboratory. The work has opened the door to exploring treatments for ROP at earlier stages of the disease.

“We have more work to do, and our lab is working on basic research to dissect the causes of abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye versus normal blood vessel growth,” Hartnett said. “We aim to find a treatment that will help prevent ROP and improve vision.”

Indeed, Hartnett’s recent findings focus on the effects of a set of drugs known as “anti-VEGF” injections, which inhibit the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the eye that cause ROP. Initially, Hartnett suspected the drugs would stunt normal vascular development in infants’ eyes, but her basic science research pointed her in a different direction that she has rigorously pursued for years.

Now, in a clinical study using a comparison group of infants, her research has, for the first time, shown clinical evidence that anti-VEGF injections do not inhibit normal blood vessel development in premature babies. In fact, the drugs appear to promote normal development and could even prevent ROP from forming in the first place.

“Our faculty are among the foremost experts in their specialties and have a long track record of pursuing big ideas that translate from the laboratory into the clinic,” said Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, Blumenkranz Smead Professor and chair of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute. “Dr. Hartnett’s research on ROP has led to a whole new treatment strategy for infants.”