scholarly journals Gene therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration: rationale, clinical trials and future directions

2020 ◽  
pp. bjophthalmol-2020-316195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thales Antonio Cabral de Guimaraes ◽  
Michalis Georgiou ◽  
James W B Bainbridge ◽  
Michel Michaelides

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the developed world. Antivascular endothelial growth factor therapy has transformed the management and outcome of neovascular AMD (nAMD), although the need for repeated intravitreal injections—even lifelong—and the related complications, high drug costs, frequent clinic visits and repeated imaging have resulted in an enormous burden both to healthcare systems and patients. The application of gene therapy approaches for sustained delivery of a range of antiangiogenic proteins has the promise of helping to address these aforementioned challenges. A number of early phase clinical trials of gene therapy in nAMD have provided encouraging results, with many more ongoing or anticipated. There remain significant areas of controversy, including regarding the optimal treatment targets, routes of administration and potential safety concerns. In this review we aim to provide an update of the current status of gene therapy for nAMD and briefly discuss future prospects.

2021 ◽  
pp. bjophthalmol-2020-318452
Author(s):  
Thales Antonio Cabral de Guimaraes ◽  
Malena Daich Varela ◽  
Michalis Georgiou ◽  
Michel Michaelides

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the developed world. The identification of the central role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the pathogenesis of neovascular AMD and the introduction of anti-VEGF agents as gold-standard treatment, have drastically changed its prognosis—something yet to be seen in dry AMD. Several therapeutic avenues with a wide variability of targets are currently being investigated in dry AMD. The approaches being investigated to reduce the rate of disease progression include, (1) drugs with antioxidative properties, (2) inhibitors of the complement cascade, (3) neuroprotective agents, (4) visual cycle inhibitors, (5) gene therapy and (6) cell-based therapies. A number of early phase clinical trials have provided promising results, with many more ongoing and anticipated in the near future. In this review, we aim to provide an update of the interventional trials to date and future prospects for the treatment of dry AMD.


2021 ◽  
pp. 112067212110183
Author(s):  
Laurent Kodjikian ◽  
Carl Joe Mehanna ◽  
Salomon-Yves Cohen ◽  
François Devin ◽  
Sam Razavi ◽  
...  

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents have transformed the management of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) over the past two decades. However, as more long-term real-world data become available, it is clear that treatment outcomes are inferior to those reported in large, controlled clinical trials. This is largely driven by undertreatment, that is, not maintaining a consistent injection frequency to achieve sustained VEGF suppression, whether due to patient non-compliance, an important injection burden, or non/incomplete anatomical response. Newer therapeutic advances under evaluation hold promise in achieving more, for less. We review the latest drugs currently in or having successfully finished phase III clinical trials, and determine their potential place in the management of patients with nAMD in Europe.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa Hanout ◽  
Daniel Ferraz ◽  
Mehreen Ansari ◽  
Natasha Maqsood ◽  
Saleema Kherani ◽  
...  

As one of the leading causes of blindness, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has remained at the epicenter of clinical research in ophthalmology. During the past decade, focus of researchers has ranged from understanding the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the angiogenic cascades to developing new therapies for retinal vascular diseases. Anti-VEGF agents such as ranibizumab and aflibercept are becoming increasingly well-established therapies and have replaced earlier approaches such as laser photocoagulation or photodynamic therapy. Many other new therapeutic agents, which are in the early phase clinical trials, have shown promising results. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the available treatment modalities for neovascular AMD and then focus on promising new therapies that are currently in various stages of development.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2035
Author(s):  
Bo Yang ◽  
Ge Li ◽  
Jiaxin Liu ◽  
Xiangyu Li ◽  
Shixin Zhang ◽  
...  

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a degenerative eye disease that is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in people 50 years and older. Today, the most common treatment for AMD involves repeated intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs. However, the existing expensive therapies not only cannot cure this disease, they also produce a variety of side effects. For example, the number of injections increases the cumulative risk of endophthalmitis and other complications. Today, a single intravitreal injection of gene therapy products can greatly reduce the burden of treatment and improve visual effects. In addition, the latest innovations in nanotherapy provide the best drug delivery alternative for the treatment of AMD. In this review, we discuss the development of nano-drug delivery systems and gene therapy strategies for AMD in recent years. In addition, we discuss some novel targeting strategies and the potential application of these delivery methods in the treatment of AMD. Finally, we also propose that the combination of CRISPR/Cas9 technology with a new non-viral delivery system may be promising as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of AMD.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Wai ◽  
Rishi P. Singh

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents are the mainstay of therapy for treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD), one of the leading causes of blindness in the developed world. There have been a variety of different treatment regimens that have been examined for the administration of anti-VEGF therapies, including continuous fixed dosing, pro re nata administration, and treat and extend (TAE) protocols. There is no clear consensus on which dosing regimen optimizes visual and anatomical outcomes while accounting for factors such as cost and patient burden. Based on recent surveys in 2014 and 2017 by the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS), the majority of ophthalmology providers are utilizing TAE protocol for anti-VEGF dosing for the management of nvAMD. Although there are a number of clinical trials that have examined TAE dosing, the ALTAIR study is the first, large, prospective randomized controlled trial to compare two different TAE protocols utilizing the anti-VEGF agent aflibercept for nvAMD. The ALTAIR study, in conjunction with other previous clinical trials, suggests that TAE protocol with aflibercept is an effective anti-VEGF dosing regimen for patients with nvAMD as it produces good visual gains and minimizes cost and burden for the patient.


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