Pitt Nursing Faculty Secures Patent

Cecelia C. Yates, Assistant Professor, is part of a research team that successfully sought a patent for “Activators of CXCR3 for the Treatment of Angiopathies of the Eye.”  Angiopathy, in general, is any disease of the blood vessels: in terms of the eye, such disorders may include macular degeneration, restenosis following glaucoma treatment, or diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Yates and her team developed a compound – the IP-10 (peptide) – which is an activator of the C-X-C chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR3). CXCR3 provokes an anti-angiogenic mechanism (blocking new blood vessel growth), which would be beneficial in wound healing and treating angiogenic disorders of the eye.  In excess of 12 million older Americans suffer from vision loss caused by excessive ocular blood vessel growth. The new IP-10 peptide is designed as an injectable solution that will remove excess blood vessels – restoring vision, not just halting vision loss.  Dr. Yates’ co-inventors are also Pitt faculty: Joel S. Schuman, MD, FACS, Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology, Ian Conner, PhD, MD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, and Alan Wells, MD, DMSc, the Thomas J. Gill III Professor of Pathology and Vice Chairman of the Section of Laboratory Medicine.