Daily aspirin use among seniors may double their risk of developing a particularly advanced form of age-related macular degeneration, a debilitating eye disease, a large new European study suggests.
The possible link involves the so-called “wet” type of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a significant cause of blindness in seniors.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_120483.html
The Macular Degeneration Association, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing blindness, today issued an urgent warning to patients suffering from a form of the disease known as “intermediate dry age-related macular degeneration.” MDA leaders and ophthalmologists are advising patients to talk with their doctors about a proven and commonly prescribed vitamin supplement containing zinc, an ingredient…
Bayer HealthCare has entered into a five-year collaboration agreement with The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, for the discovery and development of new therapies in ophthalmology targeting retinal diseases. Both the parties will jointly conduct research activities evaluating new targets and disease mechanisms, drug delivery technologies, and biomarkers for back-of-the-eye diseases with high unmet…
Neurons and glial cells in the retina contribute to neovascularization, or the formation of abnormal new blood vessels, in proliferative retinopathy, a condition that can lead to vision loss or blindness. We identified a mechanism by which suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) in neurons and glial cells prevents neovascularization. We found that Socs3 expression…
RetroSense Therapeutics, LLC, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation for the Company’s lead product RST-001 for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic condition which leads to the progressive degeneration of rod and cone photoreceptors (cells found in…
In a boost to localized disease treatment, research has yielded micro and nano-scale protein making machinery in capsule form, capable of manufacturing drugs inside the human body. The study was published in American Chemical Society’s (ACS) journal, Nano Letters. Proteins are the building blocks of drugs and integral to the human cell. Read more at…
The promising clinical results obtained for ocular gene therapy in recent years have paved the way for gene supplementation to treat recessively inherited forms of retinal degeneration. We used spliceosome-mediated RNA trans-splicing as a strategy for repairing the transcript of the rhodopsin gene, the gene most frequently mutated in autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Retinitis…