Food Supplements in the Treatment of Ophthalmic Diseases: Preclinical and Clinical Studies

Abstract

Among the 2.2 billion people in the world affected by any type of eye condition, the World Health Organization estimates 196 million with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), 146 million with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and 76 million with glaucoma [1]. No clear estimate exists on the global presence of dry eye, though the English Agency known as Global-Data UK Ltd. in a document published on June 2018, considering the 8 more industrialised Countries (US,

Pharmacotherapy and Nutritional Supplements for Neovascular Eye Diseases

“…In fact, pharmaceutical drugs mainly target the growth factors and cytokines responsible of neovessel growth, which are therefore downstream of the causative events. On the other hand, the vast majority of nutraceuticals advised for retinal pathologies take advantage of their anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties ( Figure 3 ), thus targeting with different efficiency the common upstream roots of most retinal diseases, especially in that part of the population at risk because of environmental or genetic factors [ 92 ]. Of course, there is no absolute or neat distinction between the different molecules, some of which might be endowed with more than one property, such as VEGF, which exerts both pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic effects [ 93 ].…”