The diabetes drug metformin may protect against the development of age-related macular degeneration, a common cause of blindness that to date has no effective preventative measures, researchers say.
The results come from a large case-control study of data from insurance claims in the United States. Participants aged 55 and older with newly diagnosed AMD were matched with a control group.
Metformin, commonly used to help manage blood sugar in diabetics, has been shown to protect against age-related diseases and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. When investigators looked at metformin dosage and exposure to other prescribed medications in the study population, use of the drug was associated with a decreased risk of developing AMD, lead author Dimitra Skondra reported. , MD, Ph.D, of the University of Chicago Medical Center.
The greatest benefit seems to occur at low to moderate doses.
When they only looked at patients with diabetes, there was a dose-dependent decrease in the risks of developing AMD in patients, Skondra and colleagues wrote. Notably, however, metformin did not appear to have a protective effect in patients with diabetes and a diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy (damage to the blood vessels in the eye caused by high blood sugar).
The current results suggest that clinicians could use metformin as part of a new therapeutic strategy to help prevent AMD, Skondra and his team concluded.
AMD is associated with aging and damages sharp, central vision, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The full findings have been published in JAMA Ophthalmology.
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