A New Study Supported by Research to Prevent Blindness Reveals that Antioxidant Therapy Prevents Vision Loss in Rare Birth Defect

A New Study Supported by Research to Prevent Blindness Reveals that Antioxidant Therapy Prevents Vision Loss in Rare Birth Defect

A new study led by vision researchers at UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the VA Western New York Healthcare System has demonstrated that the addition of widely available antioxidants to the current standard-of-care prevented vision loss in an animal model of a rare genetic disease.

Published in the Jan. 19 issue of Scientific Reports, the paper describes the combination therapy that resulted in preventing the retinal degeneration that can occur in babies born with Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome (SLOS).

Caused by the body’s inability to make cholesterol, the disease is a birth defect that results in multiple neurosensory and cognitive abnormalities, physical deformities and disabilities, including vision loss. In severe cases, it can be fatal.

“Using our combination therapy approach, we were able to prevent otherwise progressive and irreversible retinal degeneration from occurring in a rodent model of this hereditary human metabolic disease that we had previously developed,” says Steven J. Fliesler, Meyer H. Riwchun Endowed Chair Professor, vice chair and director of research in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Jacobs School and the Ira G. Ross Eye Institute Vision Research Center, and professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Neuroscience Program. He also is a research career scientist at the VA Western New York Healthcare System...