Innovative therapeutic approaches for the atrophic Age-related Macular Degeneration (“dry” AMD)

Finally, during the period abroad of my PhD program, I studied through an RNA-sequencing strategy how statins might exert a protective role in AMD. Following previous findings from my host laboratory, I investigated if treating ARPE-19 cells and primary culture of RPE cells with different concentrations of Atorvastatin could induce modification in expression of genes related to fundamental pathways as phagocytosis, debris removal and lipid metabolism. I was able to detect any genes involved in these modifications, without being able to prove a clear trend indicating a massive pathways involvement.