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New Drug to Fight Advanced AMD Promising
December 03, 2007 at 12:01 PM
Drug News
They have found that endostatin significantly reduced or completely halted the abnormal growth of blood vessels within the eyes in tests on mice.
The AMD is an age-related, degenerative disease of the macula, a small area at the centre of the retina. The overgrowth of blood vessels into the retina can lead to central vision loss, preventing sufferers from seeing fine details. It can also lead to blindness.
Researchers separated mice into two groups — one group of normal mice naturally produced endostatin, a protein in collagen, while the other group had endostatin removed in lab experiments.
Endostatin is actually a piece (a fragment) of collagen 18, found in all blood vessels. This fragment is normally secreted by tumors. It appears to halt the process of developing new blood vessels (angiogenesis) which is necessary to tumor development.
Using lasers, researchers induced new blood vessel growth in the edge of the retinas of all the mice, simulating age-related macular degeneration. The mice that had had the endostatin removed were three times as likely to develop the degenerative eye disease.
Researchers then gave endostatin to both groups of mice. In the group that had lacked the substance, the number of abnormal blood vessels was reduced to normal levels, according to the researchers. In the group that had naturally occurring endostatin, abnormal blood vessel growth could no longer be found.
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More News on: Drug Toxicity, Clinical Trials - Different Phases of the trial , Signature Drug Toxicity, Geriatry-Related Diseases, Age Related Macular Degeneration, Foods that Gives You Sparkling Eyes
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