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Purpose: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive retinal inflammatory disease, which causes irreversible blindness. AVD-104, an optimized sialic-acid (glycan) coated nanoparticle (Aviceda Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA) was engineered to directly agonize the self-pattern recognition receptors on retina immune cells called Siglecs (sialic-acid binding immunoglobulin-like lectins). Siglecs are members of the Ig superfamily that recognize sialic-acid residues of glycoproteins. Siglecs 7, 9, and 11 are expressed on monocytes, macrophages, and microglia which are key innate immune cells implicated in AMD pathobiology. Sialic-acid recognizes ITIMS (immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs) bearing Sigelcs that modulate inflammation. Therefore, our therapeutic strategy was to show high binding affinity of our lead nanoparticles to Siglecs involved in dampened activity of inflammatory cells …