Until about 20 years ago, people in the advanced stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) were almost certain to lose their central vision. Without the ability to see faces, read or drive, most people met the criteria for blindness.
That changed for some people in 2006. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a treatment for an advanced form of the disease known as wet AMD, in which new blood vessels develop in the central part of the retina and leak fluid. "When I started practising, for a patient with wet AMD it was depressing. There wasn't a whole lot we could do," says Dante Pieramici, co-director of the California Retina Research Foundation in Santa Barbara. The arrival of the drug ranibizumab, which inhibits the growth of leaky blood vessels, was a major shift.
Read the full article online at Nature: