Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have found that dry and wet forms of macular degeneration both lack a particular enzyme
Despite initially looking only at the dry form of macular degeneration, researchers soon turned their attention to the dry form and were surprised to find that both forms of the degenerative eye disease were lacking an enzyme known as Dicer. Dicer is lost as people age and this loss results in extra blood vessels being formed.
After this discovery, researchers were able to restore the enzyme in mice utilizing gene therapy. This success makes researchers optimistic that a similar therapy could be used to treat both the wet and dry form of macular degeneration in the future.
