HIV treatment linked to reduced risk for dry AMD
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Use of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors was associated with a reduced risk for developing dry age-related macular degeneration, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“We are extremely excited that the reduced risk was reproduced in all the databases, each with millions of patients,” Jayakrishna Ambati, MD, founding director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Advanced Vision Science, co-founder of Inflammasome Therapeutics and one of the study’s authors, said in a press release issued by UVA Health. “This finding provides real hope in developing the first treatment for this blinding disease.”
Ambati and colleagues reviewed four health insurance databases that a press release issued by Inflammasome Therapeutics said contained the data of “more than 100 million” patients. The release also noted that nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors are often used to treat HIV. Researchers assessed Alu RNA and wrote that “Alu RNA promotes retinal pigmented epithelium death in geographic atrophy, an untreatable type of age-related macular degeneration.”
Use of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors was associated with reduced risk for developing atrophic AMD (pooled adjusted HR = 0.616; 95% CI, 0.493-0.77), which “identif[ies] inhibitors of this Alu replication cycle shunt as potential therapies for a major cause of blindness,” researchers wrote in the study.
Low-toxicity nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor derivatives may be effective for other degenerative diseases as well, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes, Ambati said in the Inflammasome Therapeutics release.
“A clinical trial of these inflammasome-inhibiting drugs is now warranted,” Ambati said in the UVA Health release.
References:
- UVA Health. HIV drugs may help prevent blinding macular degeneration (2021). Available at: https://newsroom.uvahealth.com/2021/02/01/hiv-drugs-may-help-prevent-blinding-macular-degeneration/. Accessed Feb. 4, 2021.
- Inflammasome Therapeutics. Inflammasome Therapeutics Says Study Published Today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Provides Human Data Confirming Potential of Company’s Proprietary Compounds for Prevention of Dry AMD (2021). Available at: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005600/en. Accessed Feb. 4, 2021.
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