A collaboration of researchers from Wayne State University, the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins Medicine has discovered a potential new treatment for macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The investigators managed to attach steroids to dendrimers nanoparticles and showed that the drugs only targeted the activated microglia, the damage-causing cells associated with neuroinflammation. The researchers published their article online in the journal Biomaterials.
Age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa are leading causes of blindness worldwide. Neuroinflammation plays a big role in both diseases. Activated microglia release substances that damage certain cells in the retina, which eventually can lead to vision loss.