These treatments may help slow disease progression and avoid vision loss in people with AMD.
Some are available for use now, while others are in differentphases of clinical research.
Dry AMD pops up if the macula starts thinning with age and/or becomes covered with protein deposits known asdrusen.
Verywell / Brianna Gilmartin
Syfovre and Izervay are both injected directly into the eye every 25 to 60 days.
While 80% of people with GA experience improvement with these drugs, 20% do not.
Stem Cell Therapy
Stem cell therapyis under investigation for the treatment of dry AMD.
The goal of treatment is to introducestem cellsinto the retina to replace those that have been damaged by AMD.
Several methods have been proposed to introduce stem cells into the retina.
A blind spot in yourcentral visionis the main symptom of wet AMD.
This is accomplished by inserting an anti-VEGF gene into a harmless virus, known as a viral vector.
There are two candidates currently under investigation:
RGX-314 is currently in phase 1/2 clinical trials.
It may take several more years for phase 3 human studies to establish this.
ADVM-022 is in even earlier stages of research.
Even so, more than one in five participants had moderate side effects.
More research is needed.
If proven effective, gene therapy may displace anti-VEGF injection as the preferred form of treatment for wet AMD.
Some of these treatments have been approved and licensed by the FDA.
Others are undergoing clinical trials and it may take years before theyre submitted for approval.
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