Parkinson's medication protects against blindness
Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.If the middle of the text is blurred, distorted or covered by a gray shadow while reading, this can be the first sign of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). There are two forms: dry macular degeneration, in which eyesight slowly deteriorates over the years, and the wet form. This is more aggressive and leads to a drastic deterioration in vision within a short period of time. So far, both forms can neither be cured nor prevented. But a new discovery gives hope.
It has long been known that people with dark eyes are less likely to develop AMD. The reason for this is possibly a higher level of L-dopa, which protects the dark-eyed people from the eye disease. Among other things, the protein is involved in the production of the pigment melanin, which tones skin and eyes dark and protects them from radiation. L-Dopa is also a precursor of various messenger substances such as dopamine and adrenaline. For example, a dopamine deficiency is the cause of Parkinson's disease. Therefore, sooner or later, patients will receive L-Dopa as a drug. But does that also protect you from macular degeneration?
L-dopa protects against AMD
To answer this question, researchers led by Brian McKay from the University of Arizona analyzed the data of over 87 million people. “Instead of looking at what could be causing AMD, we asked ourselves why certain people are protected from AMD. There has never been such an approach, "says McKay.
The researchers' analysis actually showed that patients who were prescribed L-dopa were significantly less likely to develop AMD than those who did not take L-dopa. This applied to both the dry and the wet form. And if the disease did occur, it did so at a later point in time: subjects who did not take L-dopa contracted AMD at an average of 71 years of age, while those who were prescribed L-dopa did not develop it until the age of 79.
In the next step, the researchers want to test in a clinical study whether the administration of L-Dopa can be proven to protect against AMD. They also hope that the only known L-dopa receptor called GPR143 will be a starting point for treating AMD in the future.
Most common cause of blindness
Around 4.5 million people in Germany suffer from macular degeneration. With them, the retina is damaged at its most central point, the so-called yellow spot (macula lutea). This is densely equipped with photoreceptors and is responsible for sharp vision. The damage is caused, among other things, by deposits of metabolic products. If the yellow spot is destroyed, this results in massive visual impairment. The most common form of this disease is age-related macular degeneration. In addition, severe myopia and genetic defects can also cause the eye disease.
Sources:
Brilliant M.H. et al .: Mining Retrospective Data for Virtual Prospective Drug Repurposing: L-DOPA and Age-related Macular Degeneration. The American Journal of Medicine. DOI: 10.1016 / j.amjmed.2015.10.015
Press release of the BrightFocus Foundation from November 9th, 2015
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