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. Drug therapy has not been as effective as one would like to treat ocular diseases. The good news is, recent advancements in visual sciences and alternative visual therapies such as peptide therapy can reduce visual impairments by up to 80%.
We're going to break thing down and discuss what macular degeneration and vision impairment is. We'll also go deep into new therapies for treating ocular diseases and improving visual function.
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What is Age Related Macular degeneration?
Age related macular degeneration is part of a group of degenerative retinal diseases. These diseases reduce visual function and damage ocular tissues. Macular Degeneration 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.
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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 (90% which are Primary open-angle glaucoma type), or diabetic macular edema increase the speed of central vision loss.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness.
The WHO has identified vision impairment related diseases as a major risk to the world population.
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Treatment For Degenerative Retinal Diseases Is Not Great
Most treatments to treat loss of visual function have shown only modest improvement. 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, the previous study focus has been around slowing down vision loss or stopping the protein vascular endothelial growth factor.
While these treatments have shown statistical significance at slowing vision loss, they are not centered around restoring visual function. There is a similar trend with Injecting drugs into the eye that has not provided sustained delivery of relief for patients. To date, these types of existing therapies have not provided the breakthrough scientists are looking for.
Some research points to lifestyle changes and prevention to limit abnormal vascular growth and maintain visual function.
Difficulty in treatment is centered around the protective ocular barriers (blood-aqueous humor barrier and the blood-retinal barrier.
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 thought to be the long term cure for this type of vision threatening disease.
So repeated needle injections of VEGF help reduce vascular permeability, 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.
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Eye Cellular Injectable Peptide Holds Promise
A new injectable peptide treatment was discovered last decade and 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 in reducing vascular permeability treatment but up to 86%.
In the test, researchers ruptured tissues in the anterior chamber of rabbits eyes and compared treatments of aflibercept, AX107, and a control synthetic 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 suppress vascular leakage by 70%, whereas aflibercept was inline with the control group. AXT107 was the one group which showed the most promise. Aflibercept makes the patient require treatment more often, whereas ATX107 is more effective with a single dose in observed studies. ATX107 helped with aqueous humor drainage and intraocular pressure.
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. Many of the statistical analyses are human studies as well.
Peptide bioregulators are focused 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. These cell penetrating peptides have shown promise for working through ocular barriers and improving age related macular degeneration.
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 in combination with 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.
We are seeing an emerging role in peptide therapy to heal ocular tissues. 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. Also newer forms of treatment such as topical administration or peptides in pill format could help simplify the process. These are preferred over intravitreal injection which creates the need for patients to go into the doctors office and have an increased risk for issues.
In the next few years, hopefully age related macular degeneration will no longer be something that people just "deal with".
*Last update: January 2025
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between topical dosing and peptide bioregulators taken orally?
A topical dose or intravitreal injection is typically used for the eyes. Topical administration with things such as eye drops does not have the same benefit because the eye has many protective mechanisms built in. Oral peptides are absorbed through the GI track and typically are effective for 6-12 months.
What is the Mouse Model and Animal Studies?
For many ocular diseases, a mouse model is used due to the fact that many of the same diseases are observed the same in mice. This is why mice treated studies are so common biomedical applications.