Articles about Eye Health and Disease 2003
 

Acne Drug May Help to Prevent Blindness in Stargardt’s Disease

(From the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigators at the University of California at Los Angeles.)

In a recent edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigators at the University of California at Los Angeles reported that the acne drug Accutane suppresses the accumulation of toxic pigments in mice bred to have a genetic defect simulating Stargardt's macular degeneration. The inherited progressive disease, for which there is no treatment, causes blindness in approximately 30,000 children and young adults in the United States by disrupting a protein responsible for flushing out all-trans-retinaldehyde, a byproduct of vision, from photoreceptors in the retina. One of Accutane’s possible side effects is night blindness ­ it interferes with visual pigment recycling. In the Stargardt’s mice injected daily with Accutane over two months, toxins stopped accumulating in the eyes, with no effect on daylight vision.

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