A new study suggests eye drops developed by Columbia University researchers could be a more effective – and comfortable – therapy for retinal vein occlusion (RVO), which is currently treated with eye injections.
Standard therapy involves injecting into the eye a vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor (anti-VEGF) that reduces swelling. The therapy can improve vision but patients with significant retinal damage due to impaired blood flow often have poor outcomes.
Dr Carol Troy, professor of pathology and cell biology and neurology at Columbia University said there’s an opportunity to help more people with the disease, which affects up to 2% of people aged over 40, and is a leading cause of blindness worldwide.
“Anti-VEGF therapy has helped a lot of people with RVO, but the fear factor – having to get a needle in the eye – causes many people to delay treatment, which can lead to retinal damage,” she said.
The study found that an experimental eye drop treatment was twice as effective as the standard injection therapy at reducing swelling and improving blood flow within the retina of mice with RVO. The eye drops also prevented neurons (photoreceptors) in the retina from deteriorating and preserved visual function over time, whereas the standard injections had no effect on either.
The eye drops contain an experimental drug that blocks caspase-9, an enzyme that triggers cell death, and was found by Troy’s lab to be overactive in blood vessels injured by RVO.
Dr Maria Avrutsky, the study’s first author, conducted the research as a postdoc in the Troy lab.
“We think the eye drops improve the health of blood vessels in the retina, which then decreases the toxic signaling that damages the retina’s neurons and leads to vision loss,” she said.
Future studies are aimed at preparing to test the eye drops in human clinical trials and identifying additional therapeutic targets.
“Finding the root cause of RVO is the holy grail, but if we can at least provide better symptomatic relief that doesn’t distress patients, it would be a really good start,” Troy said.
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