%0 Journal Article
%T Anti-oxidant Phytochemicals As Potential Treatments For Age-related Macular Degeneration - Anti-oxidant Phytochemicals As Potential Treatments For Age-related Macular Degeneration - Open Access Pub
%A A. Shahandeh
%A D.M. Johnstone
%A E.A. Milward
%A K. Martin
%A M. Graham
%A S. Purushothuman
%J OAP | Home | Journal of Antioxidant Activity | Open Access Pub
%D 2018
%X Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is responsible for a substantial proportion of severe visual impairment and blindness in people over 50 years of age. Current treatments for AMD are not effective in all patients and a proportion of patients who respond well to the treatment will still eventually develop central visual impairment. Despite all efforts to develop safe and efficient medications for AMD, as yet pharmacological approaches have failed to provide fully effective treatments for this condition. Various lines of evidence attest to the contributions of oxidative stress in the etiology of AMD. Anti-oxidant nutrients may be valuable preventive or therapeutic agents however complementary therapies can become widely adopted without sufficient knowledge of the real advantages and liabilities. This review considers the interventional potential of some common phytochemicals for treating AMD, primarily focusing on clinical and epidemiological evidence of potential public health relevance. DOI10.14302/issn.2471-2140.jaa-14-616 Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a disease of the elderly, especially those of European ancestry, in which there is irreversible central vision loss and ultimately blindness 1, 2, 3. As lifespans increase, AMD poses an increasingly serious issue for the aging population 4 and is now a well-recognized public health problem with substantial social and economic impact 5. Epidemiological studies have identified AMD as the leading cause of blindness in the demographic of individuals 55 years and over in industrialized countries 6, 7, 8. There is a strong need for greater understanding of the underlying pathology and molecular mechanisms to guide the development of effective therapies. As shown in Figure 1, the macula, from the Latin macula lutea, macula meaning spot and lutea yellow, is located near the centre of retina. The pathological processes in AMD lead to damage and degeneration of photoreceptors within this region 9, causing impaired sight in the centre of the visual field. Figure 1. Cross section of the eye. The macula is located in the posterior segment of the eye. The arrangement of retinal layers is shown in the enlarged inset on the right. The neural retina is isolated from the blood stream (choroidal vessels) by the blood-retina barrier, formed by the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Light travels through the different layers to strike the rod and cone cells (photoreceptors) and start the visual cycle. AMD can be divided into two stages: early AMD, where there is mild pathology but no obvious vision
%U https://www.openaccesspub.org/jaa/article/183