Mitochondria. Credit: Flickr/Look and Feel

Mitochondrial-stabilising drugs could be key to reversing vision loss in early to intermediate dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients, according to Professor Baruch Kuppermann, ophthalmology department chair at California University.

Presenting data at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute's annual Angiogenesis, Exudation and Degeneration meeting in February, Prof Kuppermann said mitochondrial-stabilising pipeline drugs risuteganib (Luminate, Allegro Ophthalmics) and elamipretide (Bendavia) are the only candidates to have shown best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) gains in dry AMD patients. He reported the findings of a prospective, randomised, controlled trial evaluating risuteganib’s safety and effectiveness in 40 eyes with intermediate dry AMD. Of the patients treated with risuteganib, 48%, 32% and 20% had BCVA improvements of eight or more, 10, and 15 letters, respectively, compared with 7%, 7% and 0% of sham-treated patients, respectively. Threshold OCT characteristics can predict BCVA response to treatment, he said, with results showing 83% of those who responded to risuteganib and had an improvement of eight or more letters also had an ellipsoidal zone-retinal pigment epithelial layer of ≥30µm (vs 38% of non-responders). This will help clinicians select the patients most likely to benefit from treatment, said Prof Kuppermann.

In 2019, Stealth BioTherapeutics announced data showing significant improvements in visual function following treatment with elamipretide, an investigational drug, in its ReCLAIM study of patients with dry AMD.