UBC-U of S Research Offers Hope for Treatment of Age-Related Blindness
Posted April 25, 2005
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Monday, April 25, 2005 2005-04-11-ME
UBC-U of S Research Offers Hope for Treatment of Age-Related Blindness
Rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with anti-inflammatory drugs are
one-tenth as likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the
most common form of blindness in people over 55, researchers at the
University of British Columbia and University of Saskatchewan have found.
The study, recently published in the Neurobiology of Aging, is a joint
effort of neurologist Dr. Patrick McGeer of UBC and rheumatologist Dr. John
Sibley of the U of S.
The scientists found that that rheumatoid arthritis patients being treated
with anti-inflammatory drugs were one-tenth as likely to develop
AMD than unaffected individuals in the United States, Australia, the Netherlands
and the United Kingdom.
"Age-related macular degeneration is like Alzheimer's disease of the eye,
with retinal deposits called drusen acting like amyloid deposits in the
brain found in Alzheimer's," says McGeer, a UBC professor emeritus in the
Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research and expert in the use of
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS).
The scientists reviewed 993 rheumatoid arthritis patients in Saskatchewan
aged 65 years or older who, on average, had been living with the condition
since age 51. Only three had developed AMD, where about 30 cases could be
expected in a similarly-aged group from the general populace.
"It was natural for us to look at the rheumatoid arthritis population," says
Sibley, a U of S professor of medicine and head of the division of
rheumatology. "They have been followed closely for more than 40 years with
particular attention paid to retinal changes because medication widely used
for rheumatoid arthritis can create visual problems."
It is already accepted that NSAIDS reduce the incidence of bowel cancer.
Fifteen years ago, McGeer and Sibley found the first of a growing body of
evidence that NSAIDS may also help reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's.
However, Sibley says this is the first time a link has been identified
between anti-inflammatories and macular degeneration.
The researchers emphasize that further study is required to confirm their
findings, but if they are corroborated, anti-inflammatories would be the
first approach for this intractable disease. Related questions such as
optimum dosage and when to begin treatment need to be answered. Also, since
NSAIDS can have side effects such as stomach upset, ulcers and stress on
kidneys, they are not appropriate for everyone and criteria for high-risk
patients that would benefit from their use will need to be defined.
Macular degeneration is the most common cause of severe vision loss in
Canada, especially among the elderly, according to the Canadian National
Institute for the Blind. It causes one in three cases of reported vision
loss. The condition causes light-sensitive cells in the macula, or central
portion of the retina, to degenerate. The macula is responsible for
perceiving fine visual detail. Early signs of macular degeneration include
blurring of vision when performing detailed tasks like reading or sewing.
AMD is the most common form of the disease and causes permanent loss of
central vision. There are two forms of AMD - wet and dry - with more than 85
per cent of cases being the dry form, for which there is no effective
treatment.
McGeer and Sibley's work was supported through the Arthritis, Rheumatism,
and Aging Medical Information System (ARAMIS) consortium through grants from
the United States National Institutes of Health. Additional funding was
provided through the Jack Brown and Family Alzheimer's Disease Foundation
and the estate of George Hodgson.
Note: To view the paper, visit
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journals, click on Neurobiology of
Aging, Articles in Press. A PDF of the study is available upon request.
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For more information, contact:
John Sibley, MD, PhD
Division of Rheumatology
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 655-1000
(Note: please ask that Dr. Sibley be paged)
sibleyj@duke.usask.ca
Michael Robin
U of S Research Communications
(306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research
Patrick L. McGeer, MD, PhD
Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research
University of British Columbia
(604) 822-7377
mcgeerpl@interchange.ubc.ca
Hilary Thomson
UBC Public Affairs
University of British Columbia
(604) 822-2644
hilaryt@exchange.ubc.ca
