Today, there is no approved drug in the market that stops or prevents macular degeneration in older people. That  is most likely going to change in the future, looking at a research going on in the UK.

Macular degeneration happens when the body’s immune system gets faulty and starts attacking healthy eye cells. The current research, which had trials in the UK, Europe and US, found that two new injectable drugs – Pegcetacoplan and Zimura, when injected into the eye, introduce proteins that stop the immune system from attacking the healthy eye cells. When tested on 286 patients, scientists found that over a year, it slowed disease progression by 29 percent. It is believed that the drugs will stop the spread of this disease and preserve vision if taken over a longer period of time.

These drugs are expected to be available in the market in four years. Once available, they have the potential to save tens of thousands of people’s vision.

In addition, there are a couple of other potential therapies being researched for AMD – the first, a one time gene therapy delivered surgically and the second, a low level light therapy. 

Hit the source link to learn more about these researches.

Source: Express

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