Reduced blood flow and impaired neurovascular coupling are well-known features of glaucoma, the main cause of non-curable blindness, affecting 80 million people worldwide in 2020. The mechanisms behind these abnormalities are now known, thanks to new research by a team led by Adriana Di Polo, professor of neuroscience and ophthalmology at Université de Montréal. The findings by Luis Alarcon-Martinez and Yukihiro Shiga, both post-doctoral fellows in Di Polo’s laboratory and co-authors of the study, reveal that nanotubes connecting pericytes are damaged in glaucoma leading to neurovascular failures.