Light Therapy Showing Success As Retinal Treatment

According to an article in the August 6, 2020 edition of Ophthalmology Times, a procedure called photobiomodulation (PBM) has had recent success in treating eye diseases such as AMD, retinopathy of prematurity, and diabetic macular edema. PBM, or low-level light therapy, is the application of monochromatic light to a part of the body with the [Read More]

“Lookout” app now available for all Android devices

We reported here in March 2019 that Google had created a new Android app called Lookout to help the visually impaired. Similar to Microsoft’s Seeing AI for Apple devices, the application uses artificial intelligence (AI) combined with Talk Back to identify objects, read text, scan barcodes, and identify currencies. At that time, Lookout was available only for Google’s [Read More]

Gene therapy treatment for wet AMD shows positive results

(Updated 12/11/2020) REGENXBIO, Inc. has reported positive one year data from patients in Cohorts 4 and 5 of the Phase I/IIa trial of RGX-314 for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). As reported here in June 2017, RGX-314 is being developed as a one-time sub-retinal injection for wet AMD. It would be [Read More]

AMD associated with greater COVID mortality

The human’s natural immune system (called complement) has been found to be associated with the severity of COVID disease in people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a new study published in Nature Medicine. A hyperactive complement system is known to be directly related to development of AMD. In a retrospective observational study of [Read More]

New Drug For Wet AMD Should Be Used With Caution

Beovu (brolucizumab) for wet AMD is the newest anti-VEGF drug on the market. It has been shown to be an effective and long-lasting inhibitor of blood vessel development (neovascularization) in the retina. The drug’s manufacturer has, however, been recently investigating incidences of severe intraocular inflammation (vasculitis) and retinal artery occlusion that were reported after their product [Read More]