An investigation carried out by the Faculty of Medicine on the University of Virginia (UVA), on United States , suggests that this drug antidepressant Prozac could be a potential first treatment to treat the primary cause of blindness among older people over 50 years.
Thus, this doctor Bradley M. Gelfland, from the University of Virginia, has found the first tests on a drug fluoxetine, which could be effective against macular degeneration linked to atrophic age. This is a disease that currently affects nearly 200 millions of people across this planet.
In tests performed on laboratory and scam animal models, this drug has offered promising results. Thus, the researchers analyzed a huge database with more than 100 million Americans, finding that patients taking fluoxetine had the lowest risk of developing atrophic macular degeneration.
Drug to stop atrophic macular degeneration
Due to the results of this research, the authors suggest to carry out clinical trials of this drug on patients with scam atrophic macular degeneration. Thus, if successful, the researchers believe that this drug could be administered dentally or through the long-term implant directly into this eye.
One of the main authors on this finding is a doctor Bradley Chemical. Gelfland in this regard explains that they are the exciting example of the promise of drug reuse, that is, this use of existing drugs in unexpected new forms. Ultimately, the best way to check if fluoxetine benefits macular degeneration is to perform the prospective clinical trial.
With all this, the researchers suspect that fluoxetine acts against the degeneration Atrophic macular ‘s combined scam with a specific immune system agent known as an inflasome.
The researchers on this study tested fluoxetine with eight other anti-depression drugs on laboratory mice. None of them offered positive results against atrophic macular degeneration, one of the main causes of blindness; except for fluoxetine, which slowed the progression of the disease.
Encouraging results
The researchers explain that the methods Traditional on development on this type on drugs can have a high cost with needing over long periods over time. And usually, a new drug approved by the FDA takes between 10 with 12 years, with costs about 2. 400 million euros.
Although, this doctor Gelfand argues that our Identification of recognized zero therapeutic activity on an existing FDA-approved drug using mining on big data, coupled with demonstration of its efficacy on a disease-relevant model, could accelerate with greatly reducing a drug development cost .
With all this this prestigious researcher concludes that although we have been very successful in using this approach to using data on patients from the true world, it is possible that we have only begun to scratch the surface on the search. on new uses for old drugs. It is tempting to think of all the untapped therapeutic potential of the drugs on drug store shelves.