Optometry Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Optometry, including details on myopia, optometric practice, therapy.

Promising new treatments for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Michels S, Schmidt-Erfurth U, Rosenfeld PJ

Klinik für Augenheilkunde und Optometrie, Medizinische Universität Wien, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, Allgemeines Krankenhaus 8i, 1090 Wien/Vienna, Austria. stephan.michels@meduniwien.ac.at

Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels from existing blood vessels, is responsible for vision loss in a variety of ophthalmic diseases. In neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause for legal blindness in many industrialised countries, abnormal blood vessels grow in the macula and cause blindness. There are a number of factors important in the angiogenic cascade but VEGF-A has been implicated in recent years as the major factor responsible for neovascular and exudative diseases of the eye. Numerous antiangiogenic drugs are in development but anti-VEGF drugs have shown great promise in treating neovascular AMD and other ocular diseases, and many of these drugs have been adopted from oncology where antiangiogenic therapy is gaining wide acceptance. For the first time in neovascular AMD, anti-VEGF drugs have brought the hope of vision improvement to a significant proportion of patients. This review provides an overview on angiogenic mechanisms, potential antiangiogenic treatment strategies and different antiangiogenic drugs with special focus on neovascular AMD.

Published 21 June 2006 in Expert Opin Investig Drugs, 15(7): 779-93.
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