Pharmacological Approaches to Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Based on the results of the ARED study, a prophylactic treatment with a combination of vitamin C, vitamin E, β-carotene, and zinc is recommended for patients meeting the fundoscopic criteria described as categories 3 and 4 in the study. For all other nutritional supplementation including lutein or zeaxanthin,which increase macular pigment density, there is as yet no proven efficacy with regard to the prevention of AMD. However, many new antiangiogenic therapies are currently under investigation in large multicentre trials and hold exciting potential for patients with neovascular AMD. Further insight into the angiogenic process and its inhibition may lead to more targets that may be transferred for use in patients with neovascular AMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]