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Acne drug may help prevent Stargardt’s, animal study finds
LOS ANGELES — A side effect of the acne medication isotretinoin may help prevent Stargardt’s macular degeneration, an animal study suggests.
Researchers here at the University of California, Los Angeles found that Accutane (isotretinoin, Roche) inadvertently eliminated toxin buildup in mice that were bred to have a genetic defect similar to Stargardt’s macular degeneration, also known as juvenile macular degeneration. Currently, no approved treatment exists for the condition, which affects up to 30,000 children in the United States, the researchers said.
Gabriel Travis, a lead researcher on the study, found that raising Stargardt’s mice in total darkness prevented the buildup of eye toxins thought to cause the disease. Accutane has been documented with an unwanted side effect of causing night blindness by interfering with the recycling of visual pigments, according to a news wire report.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.