European researchers investigating the link between inflammation and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have identified a protein, called FHL-1, that functions as a type of “regulator” to protect the eye from an attack by the immune system. According to lead author Dr. Simon Clark, this important genetic research has identified a new target for therapeutic drugs … Continued
Three new research projects exploring the role of genes – and six genes in particular – as possible causes of glaucoma have been published simultaneously in the August 31, 2014 online edition of Nature Genetics. Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of scientific and medical information in print and online. NPG publishes a range … Continued
A group of international researchers from the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, and Portugal have used gene therapy in a clinical trial to treat a small group of male subjects with choroideremia, a rare degenerative eye disease. This early-stage clinical trial demonstrates potential for the use of gene therapy to treat a number … Continued
A team of researchers has determined that the loss of a particular anti-aging, or aging-suppressor, gene – known as Klotho protein (KL) – induces retinal deterioration in mice and may contribute to both wet and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The KL gene helps to protect against oxidative stress, which causes dry AMD, and inhibits … Continued
The following update addressing the role of gene therapy in the treatment of Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), an inherited and progressive eye disease, is adapted, with permission, from a National Eye Institute news brief entitled New Findings Suggest Need for Combined Strategy in Treatment of Rare Form of Blindness. The mission of the National Eye … Continued
Researchers at the Jules Stein Eye Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles are continuing to recruit participants for a nationwide study investigating the heredity and exposure risk factors that lead to the development of age-related macular degeneration. The GARM II Study The goal of the Genetics of Age-Related Maculopathy (GARM II) Study … Continued