China-led Study Finds Way to Reverse a Loss of Eyesight
upstart writes:
China-led study finds way to reverse a loss of eyesight:
A joint study by researchers from China and Australia has developed a new treatment that could prevent hundreds of millions of people from losing their eyesight - without the need for ongoing injections into their eyes.
In the short term, the study's findings suggest current treatments for conditions like macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy can be made more effective and the number of injections into the eye reduced to just one.
About 450 million people worldwide are affected by loss of vision due to age or chronic disease. It was once regarded as a natural process, but in recent years scientists have found most of the blindness is caused by an excessive growth of new blood vessels at the back of the eye.
[...] The growth of young blood vessels relies heavily on a protein known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Some pharmaceutical companies have developed antibodies that can be injected into the eye and bind with the VEGF protein.
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