Science and Research
Oculoplastic and thyroid eye disease research
CERA researchers are global leaders in thyroid eye disease (TED) research. We work with international researchers with the aim of developing better treatments that reduce the severity of TED and the need for future corrective surgery.
Overview
Oculoplastic diseases are conditions that affect the eye's surrounding tissues, which help it work as it should. They are broadly categorised into eyelid, orbital (eye socket) and lacrimal (tear duct) disorders.
Thyroid eye disease (TED) is a condition of the eye socket that happens when the body's immune system mistakes the tissues as 'foreign'. This causes inflammation that leads to swelling in the eye muscles and surrounding fat.
TED affects people with Graves’ hyperthyroidism or Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. It can lead to eye protrusion (proptosis), double vision (diplopia), and make the eyes water and the eyelids swell. In severe cases, the eye socket gets very swollen. Because the eye socket can't stretch, this swelling can lead to vision loss.
We are beginning to understand the underlying factors that lead to the symptoms of TED. Our research goal is to gain a deeper understanding of how the disease develops, identify biomarkers for people at risk of developing severe disease, prevent worsening of TED at an early stage and working on discovering new therapies to improve quality of life for people living with TED.
Our researchers work on a number of areas, including epidemiological and clinical research, gene expression study, TED prototypical models for pre-clinical testing and clinical trials.
Why this research is important
Thanks to research, the first effective immunotherapy approved for TED treatment, Teprotumumab, is now available. More research is needed to develop innovative treatments that have fewer side effects. These treatments should target alternative pathways so they can work together effectively to reverse the eye protrusion and double vision caused by scarring of the soft tissues around the eye.
Smokers are more vulnerable to serious cases of TED and are less responsive to current treatment. Our research will improve our understanding of these conditions, such as the oxidative stress induced by smoking and how to reverse this.
Key research questions
- Are genes expressed differently in tissues surrounding the eye in TED which are amendable to targeted treatment?
- Can we find biomarkers to predict which patients are most at risk of developing severe TED?
- How does smoking affects oxidative stress in TED, and therefore can the early use of antioxidants slow down progression of TED?
- Can we design, engineer and test new molecules in pre-clinical and clinical trials to reverse severity of TED, ultimately improving quality of life in patients with TED?
- Can we estimate the incidence of TED and sight threatening TED in Australia using a national, multi-centre approach?
- How does the volume of soft tissues around the eye change following medical treatment in TED?
- Can we use radiology imaging to measure treatment response?