Age-related macular degeneration: Study finds surprising culprit
Companies, agencies, institutions, etc
AMD
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CDC
the Division of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Tottori University
eLife
104
People
Takashi Baba
Dai Miyazaki
AMD.“As
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Americans
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Japan
IL-4
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Summary
“These results were surprising and suggest that normally helpful immune responses can instead cause more harm,” says co-first author Dai Miyazaki.In their paper, the authors write that while IL-4 is known to reduce inflammation, prevent the growth of new blood vessels, and protect nerve cells, these functions appear to be dependent on the context.Nonetheless, they believe that their surprise finding offers new possibilities for treating AMD.“As IL-4 plays a key disease-promoting role in AMD, it may serve as a target for new treatments to treat this condition,” says Miyazaki.These treatments could block either IL-4 itself or the receptors to which it binds.For now, however, the findings remain preliminary and will need to be investigated further to confirm the researchers’ conclusions.
As said here by James Kingsland