[New therapies for age-related macular degeneration]

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of blindness in the elderly in developed countries. New treatments have been developed, and they can be grouped into those that selectively disrupt new vessels, e.g., photodynamic therapy; and those that target molecules that play an important role in angiogenesis, e.g., anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs. Ranibizumab, the anti-VEGF-drug, was the first drug that led to an improvement of visual acuity. However, a disadvantage of this drug is the need of repeated injection, and to overcome this disadvantage, gene therapy and some other methods are being studied. A clinical trial of gene therapy is being performed in the U.S.A. In this review, we describe the new therapies for AMD.