Eye Health News

Treating wet macular degeneration with shark eye drops?

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Clinical trials are currently underway to evaluate eye drops made from squalamine which was derived from the liver of spiny dogfish. Researchers from OHR Pharmaceuticals believe that squalamine may hold the key to treating and preventing wet age-related macular degeneration. Squalamine is believed to be the component that helps the shark to fight off bacterial infection by blocking certain proteins in the body that cause abnormal blood vessels to grow. Initially, researchers administered the squalamine solution via injections into the bloodstream of the eye but further evaluation resulted in reformulating into an eye drop form. Initial trials in over 250 subjects were encouraging with squalamine demonstrating that it had a biologic effect and helped to maintain and improve visual acuity in both early and advanced forms of the disease.