Ranibizumab for Diabetic Retinopathy

Abstract

Ranibizumab (Lucentis) is a Fab-Antibody with high affinity for VEGF, and is being designed to bind to all VEGF isoforms. This quality makes it a powerful drug for VEGF inhibition. Diseases of retinal and choroidal blood vessels are the most prevalent causes of moderate and severe vision loss in developed countries. Vascular endothelial growth factor plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of many of these diseases. Results of the pilot studies showed that intraocular injections of ranibizumab (Lucentis) decrease the mean retinal thickness and improve the BCVA in all the subjects. Proliferative diabetic retinopathy, currently treated with destructive laser photocoagulation, represents another potential target for anti-VEGF therapy. The early experience in animal models with proliferative retinopathy and neovascular glaucoma shows that posterior and anterior neovascularizations are very sensitive to anti-VEGF therapy. The outcome of two phase III clinical trials will increase our knowledge of the role of Lucentis in the treatment of DME.

Diabetic Retinopathy—Update on Prevention Techniques, Present Therapies, and New Leads

“…37,38 Intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF agents are thus novel therapies for the reduction of neovascularization and vessel leakage, and its efficacy has been well demonstrated in both clinical trials and practice. 37,39,40 Combination treatment supplementing pan-retinal photocoagulation with anti-VEGF injections has consistently demonstrated greater vascularization regression and leakage reduction than laser treatment alone. 41,42 In fact, comparative studies even suggest that the efficacy of injection-only treatment surpasses that of the more damaging laser option in patients with DME.…”

Suitability and Repeatability of a Photostress Recovery Test Device, the Macular Degeneration Detector (Mdd-2), for Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy Assessment

“…12 The possibilities for retarding disease progression including recent advances in pharmacologic management of diabetic maculopathy, best applied at the earliest stages of the development of abnormal pathology, further increase the priority that should be afforded to effective disease monitoring. [13][14][15] Diabetic maculopathy is the most common cause of visual loss in diabetic patients. Visual acuity represents the most widely used test of visual, and in particular macular, function.…”

Diabetic Retinopathy: Understanding Pathologic Angiogenesis and Exploring its Treatment Options

“…It has also been shown very effective in the regression of retinal neovascular disease as well in diabetic macular edema. Like pegaptanib, its effect is also short, requiring multiple injections to maintain its effect [18,107,108].…”

“…New treatment *Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Ophthalmology, Hospital São João, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Al. Prof. Hernâni Monteiro, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal; Tel/Fax: 00 351 225513669; E-mail: falcao@med.up.pt modalities are being used to treat diabetic retinopathy with promising results [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”