IRRF Home



  • Christine Curcio, Ph.D. Awarded Roger H. Johnson Macular Degeneration Prize


  • Age-Related Maculopathy Research




    • Current Research Activities
    LATEST NEWS IN AMD RESEARCH

    Widely Used Cardiovascular Drug May Also Lower Risks for Macular Degeneration


    A recent publication has indicated that elderly men who take cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins are less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). This finding, reported in the September issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology, presents the possibility that people who are taking statins to lower their blood cholesterol levels may be also fortuitously preventing the most common cause of vision loss in people over age 60. The study's authors are faculty members in the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Department of Ophthalmology, including assistant professor Gerald McGwin, Ph.D.; professor Cynthia Owsley, Ph.D.; assistant professor Jeffrey R. Crain, M.D.; and professor Christine A. Curcio, Ph.D., a recipient of funding support from the International Retinal Research Foundation.

    By reviewing medical records of patients at theBirmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center, the study's authors found that patients with ARM were less likely to have filled a statin prescription and thus less likely to have used statins to control plasma cholesterol levels. The results of the study indicate that individuals with a new diagnosis of ARMD were 70% less likely to have filled a prescription for statins than a control group.

    The characteristic lesions in ARM are located in Bruch's membrane, a layer of tissue in the eye that separates photoreceptors and their support cells, the retinal pigment epithelium, from their blood supply. These lesions and Bruch's membrane contain abundant lipids, including cholesterol, indicating that coronary artery disease and ARM may share common molecules and disease mechanisms at the level of the vessel wall. "The overlap in risk factors for cardiovascular disease and ARM, such as smoking and high blood pressure, is an indication that the two conditions have similar pathways," reported Dr. McGwin. "If ARM and cardiovascular disease share common mechanisms, it is possible that the use of cholesterol lowering drugs will be beneficial for both diseases."

    "Statins are used to help reduce low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels by inhibiting cholesterol production and increaseing LDL cholesterol removal from plasma," says Dr. Owsley. "If cholesterol is a common pathway for the development for cardiovascular disease and for ARM, then statin use may decrease ARM risk."

    The team evaluated 550 individuals with a diagnosis of ARM and matched them to 5,500 control subjects, all older male patients at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. "Further research is necessary to further understand the pathophysiology of ARM and the precise role, if any, of cholesterol. We also need to evaluate the effect of statins in lowering the risk and/or rate of progression of ARM," states Dr. Curcio. What remains to be determined is whether statins work in ARMD in the same ways they are thought to work in cardiovascular disease. It is possible that statins are beneficial by lowering plasma cholesterol, by inhibiting inflammation, or by acting directly on cholesterol-producing cells within the eye.
    IRRF: CurcioBW
    		 This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., and the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama. Study co-author Cynthia Owsley, Ph.D., is a Research to Prevent Blindness Senior Scientific Investigator.

    Co-author Christine Curcio, Ph.D., (shown at left) is a Lew R. Wasserman Merit Scholar of Research to Prevent Blindness and the first recipient of the Roger Johnson Prize in Macular Degeneration Research. Dr. Curcio is currently funded by a grant from the IRRF for the Age-Related Maculopathy (ARM) Histopathology Laboratory, the first UAB interdisciplinary center dedicated to a specific eye disease. The ARM Histopathology Laboratory is located at the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital.

    >