Diabetic Macular Edema
A recent clinical trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine compared three drugs for diabetic macular edema—Eylea (aflibercept, Regeneron), Avastin (bevacizumab, Genentech) and Lucentis (ranibizumab, Genentech)—and found all three resulted in similar average improvement when initial vision was 20/40 to 20/32. However, the study found Eylea provided greater visual improvement on average when vision was 20/50 or worse at the start of the trial. Investigators found no major differences in the safety of the three drugs.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration
A novel intravitreal injection of an immunomodulatory protein provided a long-lasting anti-inflammatory effect in mice with a form of age-related macular degeneration, according to molecular genetics researchers at the University of Florida College of Medicine. The researchers also found the drug works for uveitis and could ultimately be used for various other inflammatory eye diseases in humans. In the study, published in the January issue of Human Gene Therapy, the researchers used an adeno-associated viral vector to inject the inflammation-blocking protein M013 into the eye. Additional studies are needed before the therapy will be tested in humans, the researchers say.
People with Parkinson’s disease have significantly worse vision for low-contrast images at both near and far distances, according to a recent study in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease. Even for high-contrast images, vision of patients with Parkinson’s disease was deficient at far distances.
