Research to Prevent Blindness-Funded Study Suggests New Way of Preventing Diabetes-Associated Blindness

In people with diabetic retinopathy, growth of abnormal, leaky, fragile blood vessels in the eye can cause proliferative diabetic retinopathy, which can lead to permanent blindness. New therapies targeting a protein called VEGF have shown some success delaying the development of proliferative diabetic retinopathy, but they don’t work for all patients

A study using patient samples, human cells and mice shows that targeting a second protein called angiopoietin-like 4 together with VEGF could increase the effectiveness of the treatment.