Levodopa is commonly prescribed to treat Parkinson's disease and a recent study found that it could possibly reduce the risk of progression from dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to the wet form of the disease.
Researchers from Northwestern University recently analyzed data from the Sight Outcomes Research Collaborative registry. Three groups were compared over a timespan of five years. One group had eyes exposed to dopamine agonists; the second group was exposes to DRD2 agonists and the third group had levodopa.
Analysis of the data revealed that those treated revealed that people who had been treated with levodopa had a 47% decrease in risk of progression to the wet form when compared to the controls.
With these promising results, researchers are now calling for clinical trials to examine further whether levodopa can be a therapy in slowing the progression of AMD.
