Macular Degeneration

Scientists have found that an existing drug, already used in humans, could help restore vision lost to conditions like age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The discovery could also lead to a whole new class of drugs.

A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has engineered a novel type of scaffold that could give efforts to tackle vision loss a boost, by improving the precision with which replacement photoreceptor cells can be delivered into the eye.

Spanish researchers have created a new potential treatment for age-related macular degeneration, which is currently untreatable – a biohybrid artificial retina, made of silk and loaded with new human cells that can integrate and repair the damage.

Scientists working towards next-generation treatments for blindness have made an exciting breakthrough, demonstrating how a new method of injecting healthy cells into the eyes could act as a one-two punch to address vision loss.

Studies have seen physical activity slow age-related vision loss, but it hasn’t been clear how causal that relationship has been. New research is now offering the first evidence to show how exercise can directly slow, or prevent, macular degeneration.

​Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness in older people, with the "wet" form of the disease being responsible for about 90 percent of all cases of AMD-related severe vision loss. There may be new hope, however, in the form of an experimental eye implant.

An exciting breakthrough has revealed a new hypothesis behind the cause of glaucoma, a common degenerative eye disease. The study found a high number of T-cells present in the retinas of those suffering from the disease, suggesting the condition may have a previously undetected autoimmune cause.

​In today’s connected world we are increasingly having blue light beamed into our eyes at all times of day.​ A new study from the University of Toledo has homed in on exactly how blue light can damage our eyes and the researchers recommend avoiding looking at cell phones and tablets in the dark.​

A study has found a correlation between some degenerative eye diseases and Alzheimer’s disease. No mechanism explaining the connection has been proposed but it is thought these eye conditions may help physicians identify patients at risk of developing Alzheimer’s before major symptoms appear.

Stem cells have been shown to do everything from regrowing skull bones to healing damaged lung tissue. They've even restored vision in rabbits. But when three adult women tried an unproven stem-cell treatment in Florida to combat vision loss from macular degeneration, they all went blind.