2. Academic Validation
  3. Therapeutic Approaches with Intravitreal Injections in Geographic Atrophy Secondary to Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Current Drugs and Potential Molecules

Therapeutic Approaches with Intravitreal Injections in Geographic Atrophy Secondary to Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Current Drugs and Potential Molecules

  • Int J Mol Sci. 2019 Apr 4;20(7):1693. doi: 10.3390/ijms20071693.
Marcella Nebbioso 1,  Alessandro Lambiase 2,  Alberto Cerini 3,  Paolo Giuseppe Limoli 4,  Maurizio La Cava 5,  Antonio Greco 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Sense Organs, Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Umberto I Policlinic, Sapienza University of Rome, p. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. marcella.nebbioso@uniroma1.it.
  • 2 Department of Sense Organs, Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Umberto I Policlinic, Sapienza University of Rome, p. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. alessandro.lambiase@uniroma1.it.
  • 3 Department of Sense Organs, Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Umberto I Policlinic, Sapienza University of Rome, p. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. cerinialberto@hotmail.it.
  • 4 Low Vision Research Centre of Milan, Piazza Sempione 3, 20145 Milan, Italy. paololimoli@libero.it.
  • 5 Department of Sense Organs, Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Umberto I Policlinic, Sapienza University of Rome, p. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. maurizio.lacava@uniroma1.it.
  • 6 Department of Sense Organs, Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, Umberto I Policlinic, Sapienza University of Rome, p. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. antonio.greco@uniroma1.it.
PMID: 30987401 DOI: 10.3390/ijms20071693
Abstract

The present review focuses on recent clinical trials that analyze the efficacy of intravitreal therapeutic agents for the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), such as neuroprotective drugs, and complement inhibitors, also called immunomodulatory or anti-inflammatory agents. A systematic literature search was performed to identify randomized controlled trials published prior to January 2019. Patients affected by dry AMD treated with intravitreal therapeutic agents were included. Changes in the correct visual acuity and reduction in geographic atrophy progression were evaluated. Several new drugs have shown promising results, including those targeting the complement cascade and neuroprotective agents. The potential action of the two groups of drugs is to block complement cascade upregulation of immunomodulating agents, and to prevent the degeneration and Apoptosis of ganglion cells for the neuroprotectors, respectively. Our analysis indicates that finding treatments for dry AMD will require continued collaboration among researchers to identify additional molecular targets and to fully interrogate the utility of pluripotent stem cells for personalized therapy.

Keywords

age-related macular degeneration; anti-inflammatory agents; complement inhibitors; dry AMD; geographic atrophy; intravitreal injection; neuroprotective agents; non-exudative AMD.

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