Eye Drops To Revolutionize Treatment For Age-Related Blindness

Age-related blindness could be treated using revolutionary eye drops as injections could be painful.

Highlights:

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness.
Possible treatments for AMD involve injecting the drugs directly to the eye that could be painful.
Scientists have developed eye drops to potentially revolutionize treatment for the condition.

Age-related blindness is one of the leading causes of blindness. A research team from the University of Birmingham has developed an eye drops to potentially revolutionize treatment.

The study results published in Investigative Opthalmology and Visual Science, has been found to put an end to the painful injections that are directly injected into the eye for the treatment of a common eye disorder known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment & Prevention
Age related macular degeneration is a disease of the elderly, wherein the macula or the central part of the retina gets affected, leading to loss of vision.

‘The newly developed eye drops could revolutionize treatment for age-related blindness.’

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is found to affect more than 600,000 people in the UK. This could rise sharply in the future because of the aging population.

Eye Drops to Deliver the Drug
The research team led by Dr Felicity de Cogan has recently invented a method to deliver the injected drug in the form of eye drops.

The drop is found to use a cell-penetrating peptide(CPP) that could deliver the injected drug in the relevant part of the eye within few minutes.

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Dr de Cogan said, "The CPP-drug has the potential to have a significant impact on the treatment of AMD by revolutionizing drug-delivery options.”

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)
Age-related macular degeneration is a disease which causes a gradual loss of sight due to blurring or loss of central vision. Blindness usually occurs as a result of deterioration of the macula, pigmented structure at the back of the eye.

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It is a leading cause of age-related macular degeneration for Americans aged 50 and older. The condition is currently treated by repeated injections into the eye for at least over a period of three years.

Some of the common risk factors include

Aging
Family History
Ethnicity - Caucasians who have a higher rate of AMD
Gender- Females had a higher rate
Smoking
Heart disease
High cholesterol
Obesity

Impact of Age-Related Vision Loss
Vision loss could adversely impact the overall health and well-being of adults. It could increase the

Risk of falls and fractures
Risk of depression
Difficulty in identifying drug-related errors
Difficulty in performing the daily activities

To conclude, self-administering the drug in the form of eye drops would help to lead a significant reduction in adverse outcomes and health care costs when compared to current treatments for age-related blindness.

Blindness
Blindness is the inability to see. Three-quarters of all blindness can be prevented or cured. Get instant visual information on blindness.

The Cell-penetrating peptide and the drug complex could show potential application to other chronic ocular diseases which requires drug delivery to the posterior chamber of the eye.

"We believe this is going to be very important in terms of empowering of patients and reducing the cost of treatment to the NHS."

References

Felicity de Cogan, Lisa J. Hill, Aisling Lynch, Peter J. Morgan-Warren, Judith Lechner, Matthew R. Berwick, Anna F. A. Peacock, Mei Chen, Robert A. H. Scott, Heping Xu, Ann Logan. Topical Delivery of Anti-VEGF Drugs to the Ocular Posterior Segment Using Cell-Penetrating Peptides. Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science, 2017; 58 (5): 2578 DOI: 10.1167/iovs.16-20072
AMD (Age-Related Macular Degeneration) - (http://www.preventblindness.org/AMD-age-related-macular-degeneration)
Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) - ( https://www.fightingblindness.ie/eye-conditions/age-related-macular-degeneration/)
Aging and Vision Loss Fact Sheet - ( http://www.afb.org/section.aspx?SectionID=68&TopicID=320&DocumentID=3374&rewrite=0)

Source-Medindia