Promising New Treatment Discovered in Battle Against Blindness

A new discovery by scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston may bring hope to those potentially destined for blindness. University researchers announced Friday the development of a new therapy addressing "one of the world's leading causes of blindness."

Uveitis, the inflammation of crucial optical tissue, is responsible for between five and 15 percent of cases of total blindness in the United States, and is believed to be more prevalent in developing nations. Previously, doctors have had limited options for the treatment of the condition, so the discovery is a welcome change.

"The only thing a clinician can do now for uveitis is to treat the patient with steroids to reduce inflammation," said Kota Ramana, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UTMB. "But steroids have serious side effects, and you can't use them for a long period of time."

Ramana and his colleagues discovered that a particular enzyme, aldose reductase, was a key factor in the production of molecules that caused inflammation. As a result, they developed a compound that blocks the enzyme from performing this function. Experiments with laboratory rats yielded promising results.

"We measured inflammatory markers in the untreated rats' eyes - during inflammation there are a lot of inflammatory signaling proteins and inflammatory cells secreted in the aqueous humor," explained Ramana. "The concentrations of these proteins and cells are much lower when we used the aldose reductase inhibitor."

The treatment's effectiveness was especially encouraging for patients who suffer from uveitis caused by autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis or lupus. In these cases, the condition is spurred by the immune system accidentally, and even steroids are not a viable treatment option.