Macular degeneration and issues with visual acuity are becoming more of a problem with the rapid increase in screen time. Legal blindness is growing by 25% each decade according to the NIH. The good news is, recent advancements in visual therapies such as peptide therapy can reduce visual impairments by up to 80%.
We'll dig in more into the details in a minute, but first let's discuss what macular degeneration and vision impairment is.
What is Age Related Macular degeneration?
Age related macular degeneration is part of a group of degenerative retinal diseases. It is the leading cause of vision loss in people over 50. When you have age related macular degeneration, you cannot see fine details.
But your peripheral (side) vision will still be normal. For instance, imagine you are looking at a clock with hands. With AMD, you might see the clock’s numbers but not the hands.
There are are two types of macular degeneration: Dry and Wet (exudative).
90% of people has macular degeneration in the dry form. It develops when drusen (small protein deposits) form under your macula. The protein deposits thin the macula.
Wet macular degeneration is one of the most severe degenerative retinal diseases. It occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow under your retina and macular. These blood vessels cause vascular leakage "exudative" and cause vision loss. Your macula begins to bulge and you see dark spots in your vision. The problematic blood vessels are not easily treated.
Macular degeneration is very common. It is a leading cause of vision loss in people 50 years or older.
Spatial visual function declines with age
One of the biggest decreases reported in quality of life is vision loss. Our eyesight naturally decreases as we age. But vascular diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, abnormal blood vessel growth, glaucoma, or diabetic macular edema increase the speed of central vision loss.
The WHO has identified vision impairment related diseases as a major risk to the world population.
Treatment For Degenerative Retinal Diseases Is Not Great
The national institute of health lamented at the current limitations of therapies for macular degeneration and other central vision loss related diseases. To this point, most research has focused around slowing down vision loss or stopping the protein vascular endothelial growth factor.
While these treatments have shown to be somewhat effective at slowing vision loss, they are not centered around restoring visual function. Injecting drugs into the eye has not provided sustained delivery of relief for patients.
Some research points to lifestyle changes and prevention to limit abnormal vascular growth and maintain visual function.
Stoping Abnormal Blood Vessel Growth Is Key To Improvement
When dealing with WET macular degeneration and other eye diseases, treatment that specifically targets one protein: vascular endothelial growth factor.
There are two approaches to doing this: Needle injections of peptides (or VEGF) and taking oral peptides to improve the body's ability to produce cells. Oral peptides help provide sustained delivery of relief.
Vascular endothelial growth factor wrecks havoc on eyes
In treatment using vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), patients receive repeated injections into their eyes every 4-6 weeks. This slows the growth of new problematic blood vessels. While this has proven to slow vision loss, it is not centered around regression of established abnormal vessels, which is though to be the long term cure for this type of vision threatening disease.
So repeated needle injections of VEGF help, but they require frequent clinical visits (4 to 6 weeks apart) to slow vascular growth. This causes many trips to the doctor to just maintain vision. Researchers have been looking for significantly more suppression so repeated injections are not needed.
Eye Cellular Injectable Peptide Holds Promise
A new injectable peptide treatment was discovered last decade brought hope to those suffering from age related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
A landmark study by John Hopkins University found that a new peptide called AXT107 could outperform the standard of Aflibercept treatment but up to 86%.
In the test, researchers ruptured tissues in the back of rabbits eyes and compared treatments of aflibercept, AX107, and a control peptide. 30 days after treatment, vascular leakage was reduced by 86% in those treated by AXT107 and 69% of those treated with aflibercept. Both AXT107 and aflibercept significantly suppressed vascular leakage.
The important note was when researchers tested after 60 days, AXT107 continued to surpress vascular leakage by 70%, whereas aflibercept was inline with the control group.
So while aflibercept caused significantly less leakage after 30 days, it was ineffective over longer times in the treatment groups.
These treatment brought new hope to less frequent clinical visits, it sparked more research into the role of peptides in solving issues with retinal diseases.
Are Peptide Bioregulators The Best Way To Improve Age related macular degeneration?
Research peptides potentially improving treatment of vascular diseases picks up steam, it's important to note that peptide treatment is not new. Researchers have over 40 years of research in using peptide bioregulators to treat human disease.
Peptide bioregulators are focused on restoration on restoring the body's natural ability to produce new healthy cells. This starts to get to the underlying causes of age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and other vision impairment related diseases.
A single treatment of peptide bioregulators such as visoluten may be effective at extending efficacy of a single eye treatment for many months. When combined with other peptides like AX107, it's possible that the vision loss puzzle has been solved.
We are learning more that to restore vision we we need to improve the delivery routes to the retina and optic nerve. Short chain peptide bioregulators are more easily absorbed by the body due to simple structures. This makes the uptake and in the initiation of protein synthesis much easier.
Natural Eye Peptide Supplements
Visoluten is a dietary supplement with natural eye peptides. It normalizes the function of the eyes by reducing their peptide deficiency and restoring protein synthesis inside their cells.
Research has shown that peptides are effective at extending efficacy of current treatments as well as having restorative effects on organs within the body and brain function. Peptides cause regression of established abnormal vessels, potentially improving treatment options.
In other studies, they have been shown to delay aging of cells within the body. Extensive research is now being done to investigate delivery mechanisms for peptides. This will help in extending efficacy of a single treatment.
Visoluten is a great choice to improve eyesight and should be used along side conventional treatments.
Conclusion
Nowadays, more people than ever have vision problems due to increased computer use. Age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and other central vision loss diseases are on the rise in the western world.
Clinical trials have shown the effectiveness of peptides in slowing new problematic blood vessels. They are a new trend of "Healthcare vs. Sickcare" in the US. New healthcare is focused around restorative medicine so repeated injections are no longer needed.
As we continue to understand vascular diseases and what makes abnormal blood vessels grow in the eye, we will continue to improve outcome of treatment groups and less frequent clinical visits will be required.
In the next few years, hopefully age related macular degeneration will no longer be something that people just "deal with".
