Posted on 10/21/2021 9:35:28 AM PDT by Red Badger
An antidepressant best known as Prozac could offer the first treatment for the leading cause of blindness among people over 50, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests.
UVA's Bradley D. Gelfand, Ph.D., and collaborators have found early evidence that the drug fluoxetine may be effective against atrophic (or "dry") age-related macular degeneration, a condition that affects nearly 200 million people worldwide. The drug has shown promise in the scientists' lab tests and animal models, and the researchers bolstered by their results by examining two huge insurance databases encompassing more than 100 million Americans. That analysis concluded that patients taking fluoxetine were less likely to develop atrophic macular degeneration (AMD).
Based on their findings, the researchers are urging clinical trials to test the drug in patients with AMD. If successful, they believe the drug could be administered either orally or via a long-lasting implant in the eye.
"These findings are an exciting example of the promise of drug repurposing, using existing medicines in new and unexpected ways," said Gelfand, of UVA's Center for Advanced Vision Science. "Ultimately, the best way to test whether fluoxetine benefits macular degeneration is to run a prospective clinical trial."
Fluoxetine and AMD
The researchers believe fluoxetine works against AMD by binding with a particular agent of the immune system known as an inflammasome. This inflammasome, NLRP3-ASC, triggers the breakdown of the pigmented layer of the eye's retina.
After conducting extensive bench research, Gelfand and his team tested fluoxetine and eight other depression drugs in lab mice to see what effect, if any, the drugs would have in a model of AMD. Fluoxetine slowed the progression of the disease, but the others did not, the scientists found.
Encouraged by their findings, the researchers looked at fluoxetine use among patients over age 50 in two enormous insurance databases. People taking the drug had a "significantly" slower rate of developing dry AMD, the researchers report in a new scientific paper outlining their findings.
They note that their approach, combining bench research with big-data analysis, could potentially facilitate the repurposing of existing drugs for many conditions, speeding new treatments to patients.
"Traditional approaches to drug development can be expensive and time-consuming: On average, a new FDA-approved drug takes 10-12 years and costs $2.8 billion (present-day dollars) to develop," the researchers wrote. "Our identification of the unrecognized therapeutic activity of an existing FDA-approved drug using big data mining, coupled with demonstrating its efficacy in a disease-relevant model, could greatly accelerate and reduce the cost of drug development."
Gelfand was involved earlier this year in using a similar approach to determine that HIV drugs known as nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or NRTIs, may be useful against dry macular degeneration as well.
"While we have had a great deal of success with the approach of using real-world patient data, we may have only begun to scratch the surface of finding new uses for old drugs," said Gelfand, of UVA's departments of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering. "It is tempting to think about all the untapped therapeutic potential of medicines sitting on pharmacy shelves."
Findings Published
The researchers have published their findings in the scientific journal PNAS. The first author of the paper is Meenakshi Ambati, a senior at Albemarle High School who won several national and international science competition awards for the work. As a volunteer in Gelfand's laboratory, she initially employed bench laboratory techniques. When the pandemic all but shut down normal laboratory operations, she was able to continue working on computational analyses, which ultimately gave the overall study its multi-pronged approach.
Explore further
Toxic DNA buildup in eyes may drive blinding macular degeneration
More information: Meenakshi Ambati et al, Identification of fluoxetine as a direct NLRP3 inhibitor to treat atrophic macular degeneration, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021).
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2102975118
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Provided by University of Virginia
Strange how something that was created for an entirely different purpose can possibly help something else.
nope
cant use drugs for other conditions than they were originally designed for, regardless of their effectiveness
ivermectin, precedent’s been set by branch covidians
Prozac prevents masturbation?
What if I want to keep my depression and my eyesight???
Huge news potentially. Thanks for posting
an off-label use?
LOLOLOL!!!!! Best post of the day, week, month!
I am becoming increasingly suspicious of big pharma. Is this another ‘hook’ or could it be worthy of further thought?
Sounds legit to me.................
Nothing prevents masturbation.
So says an older friend that is.
She said...well, I mean I didn't watch or anything.
Just texted the link to an ophthalmologist friend. Thanks for the post.
I have atrophic (or “dry”) age-related macular degeneration. I’ve been taking AREDS2 per doctor suggestion. Just went in for 6 month checkup yesterday, and my eyes have not gotten worse.
AREDS2 is good for MD.
HorsePaste! All re-purposed drugs are horsepaste.
hmm
i take that
I’ve been taking Prozac for about a year for anxiety and I still have anxiety.
But you can see real good............................
Secret Agent Man wrote:
“nope
cant use drugs for other conditions than they were originally designed for, regardless of their effectiveness
ivermectin, precedent’s been set by branch covidians”
That’s not true, “off label” prescribing is OK.
“Based on their findings, the researchers are urging clinical trials to test the drug in patients with AMD. If successful, they believe the drug could be administered either orally or via a long-lasting implant in the eye.” Happy eyes!... With my recent cataracts surgery to both eyes the surgeon injected a DOXYcu bubble into the lens pocket which has dissolved over time. The bubble contained medicines before administered as eye drops, frequently dropped into the eyes. The bublle alleviates the need for drops to the eyes and has worked like a miracle! Expect the bubble approach to be used with the prozac, injected into the interocular fluid to dissolve slowly. I will be availing this new technique asap since i have AMD which cannot be corrected byt he cataract surgeries.
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