Media AdvisoryWednesday, March 20, 2024What
The drug minocycline, an antibiotic that additionally decreases irritation, didn’t gradual imaginative and prescient loss or growth of geographic atrophy in individuals with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), in line with a section II scientific examine on the Nationwide Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
Dry AMD impacts the macula, the a part of the attention’s retina that enables for clear central imaginative and prescient. In individuals with dry AMD, patches of light-sensing photoreceptors and their close by assist cells start to die off, leaving areas referred to as geographic atrophy. Over time, these areas increase, inflicting individuals to lose increasingly of their central imaginative and prescient. Microglia, immune cells that assist preserve tissue and clear up particles, are current at larger ranges round broken retinal areas in individuals with dry AMD than in individuals with out AMD. Scientists have urged that irritation – and notably microglia – could also be driving the growth of geographic atrophy areas.
This examine, led by Tiarnan Keenan, M.D., Ph.D., a Stadtman Tenure-Monitor Investigator on the NEI’s Division of Epidemiology and Scientific Purposes, examined whether or not inhibiting microglia with minocycline would possibly assist gradual geographic atrophy growth and its corresponding imaginative and prescient loss. The trial enrolled 37 members on the NIH Scientific Middle in Bethesda, Maryland, and on the Bristol Eye Hospital, United Kingdom. After a nine-month interval the place the researchers tracked every participant’s fee of geographic atrophy growth, the members took twice-daily doses of minocycline for 2 years. The researchers in contrast every participant’s fee of geographic atrophy growth whereas taking minocycline to their baseline fee, and located there was no distinction in geographic atrophy growth fee or imaginative and prescient loss with minocycline.
Earlier research have proven that minocycline may also help scale back irritation and microglial exercise within the eye, together with the retina. The drug has proven useful results for circumstances comparable to diabetic retinopathy, however has not beforehand been examined for dry AMD.
The scientific examine was funded by the NEI Intramural Program, and came about partly on the NIH Scientific Middle. Scientific trial quantity NCT02564978.
Who
Tiarnan Keenan, M.D., Ph.D., NEI Division of Epidemiology and Scientific Purposes is out there for interviews.
Reference
Keenan TDL, Bailey C, Abraham M, Orndahl C, Menezes S, Bellur S, Arunachalam T, Kangale-Whitney C, Srinivas S, Karamat A, Nittala M, Cunningham D, Jeffrey BG, Wiley HE, Thavikulwat AT, Sadda S, Cukras CA, Chew EY, Wong WT. Part 2 Trial Evaluating Minocycline for Geographic Atrophy in Age-Associated Macular Degeneration: A Nonrandomized Managed Trial. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2024 Mar 14. doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2024.0118.
NEI leads the federal authorities’s efforts to get rid of imaginative and prescient loss and enhance high quality of life by way of imaginative and prescient analysis…driving innovation, fostering collaboration, increasing the imaginative and prescient workforce, and educating the general public and key stakeholders. NEI helps fundamental and scientific science applications to develop sight-saving remedies and to broaden alternatives for individuals with imaginative and prescient impairment. For extra info, go to https://www.nei.nih.gov.
In regards to the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH):
NIH, the nation’s medical analysis company, consists of 27 Institutes and Facilities and is a part of the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies. NIH is the first federal company conducting and supporting fundamental, scientific, and translational medical analysis, and is investigating the causes, remedies, and cures for each frequent and uncommon ailments. For extra details about NIH and its applications, go to www.nih.gov.
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