Eye drops may be more effective than injections for treating retinal disease: study

A study suggests that eye drops may be a more effective – and comfortable – therapy for a common eye disease that is currently treated with injections into the eye. Retinal vein occlusion (RVO), an eye disease that affects 2 percent of people over the age of 40, occurs when a vein in the retina of the eye becomes blocked, causing swelling, inflammation, and swelling in the retina. damage and vision loss. ,

Standard therapy involves injecting a vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor (anti-VEGF) into the eye which reduces inflammation. Therapy can improve vision but patients with significant retinal damage due to poor blood flow often have poor outcomes.

The study, published online in Frontiers in Neuroscience, found that an experimental eye drop treatment was twice as effective as standard injection therapy at reducing inflammation and improving blood flow within the retinas of mice with RVO.

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“Anti-VEGF therapy has helped many people with RVO, but because of fear – of going into the eye with a needle – many people delay treatment, says Carol M. Troy, which can lead to retinal damage. could.” , professor of pathology and cell biology and neurology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

“There is an opportunity to help more people with this disease which is a leading cause of blindness worldwide.”

The new eye drops prevented the degeneration of neurons (photoreceptors) in the retina over time and preserved visual function, while standard injections had no effect on either. These include an experimental drug that blocks caspase-9, an enzyme that triggers cell death, and was found to be hyperactive in blood vessels injured by RVO.

“We believe the eye drops improve the health of blood vessels in the retina, thereby reducing toxic signals that damage retinal neurons and cause vision loss,” said first author Maria I. Avrutsky from the Troy lab. Is.”

Future studies aim to test the eye drops in human clinical trials and prepare to identify additional therapeutic targets. “Tracing the root cause of RVO is the hardest thing to do, but if we can at least provide better symptomatic relief that doesn’t bother patients, that would be a really good start,” Troy said.