This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Options for dry AMD management include genetics, stem cell therapy, multispectral imaging
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
PHILADELPHIA — New discoveries promise to drive developments in the diagnosis and treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration, a speaker said here.
Jason Slakter, MD, described potential diagnostic and treatment methods at Macula 2014.
Currently, dry AMD management involves color photography and optical coherence tomography to follow disease progression, but there are no existing treatments, Slakter said.
“In spite of all these wonderful photographs we’re taking, we have no treatments today for the disease,” Slakter said, noting that data from AREDS and AREDS2 show the benefits of vitamins and antioxidants in delaying and slowing the development of wet AMD.
By 2019, clinicians may use improved software and genetics to guide diagnosis and treatment. Treatment may include visual cycle modulation, amyloid beta-blockade and complement inhibition.
By 2024, treatment options may include adaptive optics, genetic therapy, stem cell therapy and subretinal implants.
“Adaptive optics finally gets to be used,” Slakter said. “We heard a lot of bad comments about it earlier. Adaptive optics has finally come into its own. We’re looking at the microscopic changes occurring in the back of the eye because we’re starting to treat individual cells. Things have progressed.”
Multispectral imaging may enable visualization of structural components of the retina, and biometric imaging may enable visualization of metabolic activity and oxygenation of tissues.
Disclosure: Slakter has financial relationships with Acucela, Alimera, Bayer, Centocor, Genentech, Lpath, Ohr, Oraya, Regeneron, Sanofi, Santen and Xcovery Vision. He has an ownership interest in SKS Ocular LLC.