A study into anti-VEGF treatment has raised concerns about potential side effects.
When researchers at Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts, simulated the VEGF-A activity in adult mice, they found that blocking the protein decreased the intraocular pressure, impairing tissue - known as the ciliary body - which produces the fluid that bathes the eye.
Lead researcher, Patricia D'Amore, explains: "Our finding indicates that VEGF-A is at least one of the molecules that play a role in keeping the ciliary body healthy."
Anti-VEGF-A therapies are widely used to treat wet macular degeneration and diabetic macular oedema. There is no evidence to indicate that current treatments interfere with the ciliary body.
However the research team believe their findings could have implications for new therapies being developed that involve more continuous delivery of anti-VEGF to the eye or more potent inhibitors of VEGF.
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More information
Expression and role of VEGF-A in the Ciliary Body is published in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, November 2012 53:7520-752.
Article published in NB magazine March 2013.