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Press Release - 28th February 2008
New gene found for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Prof Lotery and his team at the University of Southampton have identified a new genetic risk factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This work has just been published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. They took DNA samples from 478 people with AMD and from 555 people with no signs of the disease. Building on their previous work which showed that genes that control inflammation were important for developing AMD they looked for evidence of genetic variations in genes controlling the production and suppression of cytokines: powerful chemicals involved in inflammatory processes in the body. This work paid off when they identified that one of the genetic variants (251A/T), associated with a gene that boosts the production of interleukin 8, or IL-8 for short, was significantly more common among the patients with AMD.
Prof Lotery says "This is exciting research which helps us understand why people develop AMD. In the future we may be able to target patients with this genetic risk factor for specific anti-inflammatory treatments, maybe something as simple as an aspirin! This then should allow us to get much better treatment results. We are very grateful for the Gift of Sight appeal supporting this work and I would encourage people to consider making a donation to this very worthwhile cause."
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