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Dr Michael Cohen Contrasts the Manifestation and Treatment of Wet vs Dry AMD
Michael N. Cohen, MD, a retinal surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital and Mid Atlantic Retina, describes the differences between wet and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and how gene therapy could help treat the condition in the future.
Transcript
How does geographic atrophy differ from other forms of age-related macular degeneration and how can gene therapy address it?
Cohen: So, macular degeneration comes in 2 types: dry and wet. We have excellent treatment for the wet form of the disease, which is when blood vessels grow underneath the retina.
The dry form of the disease is a little different. Early on, this is marked by several findings we see in the retina, that buildup called drusen. As things progress over time, it can lead to atrophy or loss of cells at the outer retina, which can be pretty visually devastating.
Right now, we have no treatment in terms of really effectively dealing with it. The route of administration of a lot of our medications is injections into the vitreous cavity. And so, there are always potential risks involved with this, even though they're quite small. But it is a burden some issue to patients in terms of needing quite a high number of injections to control their disease right now and that's what we see in the wet form of macular degeneration. The hope of gene therapy is that even though the route of administration is the same injection into the vitreous cavity, it has the potential for a much, much longer lasting effect, which would really limit that injection burden.
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