The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first artificial retina, an implanted device that replicates some of the function of the retina, helping to restore vision to people blinded with a rare genetic disorder. The device is intended to replace the function of light-sensing cells in the retina destroyed by retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative disease that affects about 100,000 people nationwide.
Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, cone-rod dystrophy and Stargardt disease cause scotomas, or blind spots, which often have devastating effects on central vision. They cause gaps in a person’s visual field, making it difficult to see words in a book, images on a computer monitor or TV and the features of someone’s face. A…
Retinal degenerative diseases are major causes of untreatable blindness, and novel approaches to treatment are being sought actively. Here we explored the activation of a unique protein, sigma 1 receptor (Sig1R), in the treatment of PRC loss because of its multifaceted role in cellular survival. We used Pde6βrd10 (rd10) mice, which harbor a mutation in…
“NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – New age-related macular degeneration (AMD) develops in about a quarter of fellow eyes to those treated for neovascular AMD with intravitreal anti-VEGF agents, according to a post hoc analysis of the VIEW 1 and VIEW 2 studies.” “The high risk for fellow eye conversion in patients with neovascular AMD in…
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALNY), the leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) for the Phase 3 APOLLO study of patisiran in patients with hereditary ATTR amyloidosis with polyneuropathy (hATTR-PN) met on October 7, 2016 and recommended continuation of the trial without modification. Read the entire article here.
Experimental and clinical data suggest that pro-angiogenic, pro-inflammatory and mitogenic cytokine leptin can be implicated in ocular neovascularization and the other eye pathologies. At least in part, leptin action appears to be mediated through functional interplay with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The effects of VEGF on leptin expression were assessed in ocular endothelial cell…
This study was an evaluation, at 12 months follow-up, of anti VEGF treatment for diabetic macular edema conducted in a real world setting. To examine objective visual acuity measured with ETDRS, retinal thickness (OCT), patient reported outcome and describe levels of glycated hemoglobin and its association with the effects on visual acuity in patients treated…