Current Landscape and Future Perspectives of Diabetic Retinopathy Therapy: Pharmacological Targets, Precision Laser Technology, and Clinical Evidence

Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a major cause of blindness worldwide, poses a substantial and escalating burden on public health. The limitations of current therapeutic modalities highlight the pressing need for continued innovation in therapeutic interventions. This review comprehensively delineated the knowledge architecture, research focal points, and emerging directions in DR therapeutics. Targeted biological agents have recently emerged as principal research directions in DR therapy and hold substantial promise. They are expected to achieve the goals of blocking disease progression more persistently, effectively, and less invasively than nonbiological therapeutics through multitarget synergy and long-acting sustained-release formulations. In clinical practice, the paradigm of DR therapy has shifted toward personalized and precision medicine, with optimized subthreshold micropulse laser as a promising adjunctive therapy for enhancing long-term treatment outcomes. Looking ahead, therapeutic monitoring in DR may evolve beyond conventional morphological grading to incorporate multimodal precision diagnostics, artificial intelligence-driven broad-spectrum screening, and biomarker-based early warning systems. This review concludes with a discussion on prospects and challenges in DR therapeutics, with special emphasis on emerging drug candidates, recent clinical trial findings, and novel insights that may inform the next generation of therapeutic interventions for DR.

Keywords

diabetic macular edema / diabetic retinopathy / nanocarrier / pharmacological target / subthreshold micropulse laser

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