Abstract #3269

Effects of intraocular pressure elevation and oral citicoline treatment on resting state functional connectivity in the visual system

Yolandi van der Merwe¹, Matthew C Murphy², Leon C Ho³, Xiaoling Yang⁴, Yu Yu⁵, Ying Chau⁵, Christopher K Leung⁶, and Kevin C Chan⁷

¹Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ²Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States, ³Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ⁴Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁵Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ⁶Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ⁷Department of Radiology, New York University, New York, NY, United States

Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease that causes irreversible damage to the visual system. While elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is a major risk factor, its neurobehavioral effects on the visual system remain unclear. Here we showed that increasing magnitude and duration of IOP elevation resulted in differential effects on the visuomotor behavior and resting-state functional connectivity between visual brain nuclei. In addition, under similar levels of chronic IOP elevation, oral citicoline treatment appeared to ameliorate visual behavioral deficits and functional connectivity decrease in some brain regions. These results suggest new potential mechanistic targets for treatment of glaucoma beyond IOP lowering.

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