A new drug developed by Australian scientists is being heralded as a major breakthrough for people suffering with diabetic retinopathy, the main cause of blindness from diabetes.
The debilitating disease occurs in diabetic patients when tiny blood vessels in the retina of the eye, responsible for detecting light, leak fluid or haemorrhage.
Unfortunately, treatment options which include laser surgery or eye injections known as anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy, are not always effective.
That's why the Centenary Institute, along with researchers in Denmark set out to establish an alternative therapeutic treatment method.
"We believe (the new drug) CD5-2 could potentially be used as a stand-alone therapy to treat those patients who fail to respond to the anti-VEGF treatment," lead author Dr. Ka Ka Ting from the Centenary Institute in Sydney said on Friday.
"It also may work in conjunction with existing anti-VEGF treatments to extend the effectiveness of the treatment."
Proven to be effective on mice, the drug has the ability to reduce vascular leakage and repair damaged blood vessels in the retina.
"This drug has shown great promise for the treatment of several major health problems, in the eye and in the brain," said Professor Jenny Gamble, head of Centenary's Vascular Biology Program.
The team are now planning to conduct a full-scale clinical trial.
