A small US trial of a sustained-release intravitreous implant found geographic atrophy (GA) lesion growth was two-thirds less in treated eyes compared to controls over three months.
Inflammasome Therapeutics’ novel dual inflammasome inhibitor Kamuvudine-8 (K8) was implanted into one eye in each of five patients with bilateral GA. At three months there was a mean reduction in GA lesion growth of 66% compared to the untreated contralateral eyes with GA, as measured by fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging, said the company. In all patients, the GA lesions progressed at a much slower rate in the K8-treated eyes compared to the contralateral eyes and no drug-related intraocular or systemic safety issues were identified.
Such a rapid and dramatic reduction of GA lesion growth following a single injection is exciting, said Dr Jayakrishna Ambati, Inflammasome Therapeutics’ co-founder. “Remarkably, lesion growth was reduced irrespective of the FAF pattern, whether the lesions were fast- or slow-growing, location or duration of disease, or type of age-related macular degeneration drusen, demonstrating the broad-based action of K8,” he said.
