AMD

With 200 million diagnosed patients worldwide—predominantly older adults—AMD is the most common and serious eye disease, capable of leading to near‑total blindness.
AMD is a progressive retinopathy associated with chronic inflammation of the macula, resulting in progressive loss of central vision.
180 million patients have early‑stage macular degeneration, or dry AMD, characterized by amyloid deposits known as drusen.
Dry AMD precedes the wet form of the disease (wet AMD), affecting 20 million patients, characterized by choroidal neovascularization (and hemorrhages) and excessive production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by microglia.
To date, no effective treatments for dry AMD have become available. At this stage, retinal damage is still limited and potentially reversible, whereas retinal damage associated with wet AMD is often irreversible.
Standard treatment for wet AMD consists of (bi)monthly intravitreal injections of anti‑VEGF antibodies to inhibit neovascularization.