Oral lamivudine in diabetic macular edema: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial

Diabetic macular edema (DME) affects millions worldwide. Intraocular injections of expensive anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors associated with complications are standard therapy. Lamivudine, an inexpensive oral drug, inhibits inflammasome activation, which is implicated in DME. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial compared oral lamivudine to placebo for improving visual acuity in center-involved DME (CI-DME).

Twenty-four adults enrolled between February 2022 and September 2023 with 1 or 2 eyes with CI-DME and a best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of less than 69 letters (Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials RBR-87b6r5s) were randomized to lamivudine (150 mg twice daily; 10 participants; 16 eyes) or placebo (14 participants; 21 eyes) for 8 weeks. Participants were assigned intravitreous bevacizumab (1.25 mg) at week 4. Co-primary outcomes were mean changes in BCVA from baseline to weeks 4 and 8. Comparisons to anti-VEGF drugs used synthetic controls from DRCR.net Protocol T. Secondary outcomes included retinal thickness and adverse events.

At 4 weeks, BCVA improved 9.8 letters with lamivudine and decreased 1.8 letters with placebo (p < 0.001). At 8 weeks, BCVA improved 16.9 letters with lamivudine and bevacizumab and 5.3 letters with placebo and bevacizumab (p < 0.001). Lamivudine was associated with greater BCVA improvement than bevacizumab or ranibizumab (p < 0.05) and was not different from aflibercept (p = 0.5). There was no significant difference in retinal thickness or adverse events between groups.

Lamivudine, an oral inflammasome inhibitor, significantly improved vision in patients with CI-DME.

This work was supported by Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Latinofarma, UVA SIF, and NIH.