Researchers think they know why eye injections for “wet” AMD sometimes fail The eye injections actually increase a protein linked to new blood vessel growth An experimental drug reduced levels of several such proteins, reducing blood vessel overgrowth in mice TUESDAY, Nov. 5, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Current treatments sometimes fail to help people with “wet” age-related -- and researchers now think they know why. Wet AMD is caused by an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye.
The vessels leak fluid or bleed, damaging the retina and causing vision loss. To combat this, doctors prescribe medications that slow the growth of new blood vessels, called anti-VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) drugs. Unfortunately, these anti-VEGF drugs might actually hamper vision improvements by triggering the over-expression of a second blood-vessel-related protein, researchers have discovered.
This second protein, ANGPTL4, also can stimulate overproduction of abnormal blood vessels in the retina, researchers reported Nov. 4 in the . These findings could explain why fewer than half of patients who receive monthly anti-VEGF eye injections wind up showing any major improvements in their vision, researchers said.
“We have previously reported that ANGPTL4 was increased in patients who did not respond well to anti-VEGF treatment,” said researcher , an associate professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Me.
