Irish scientists have made a major breakthrough in relation to a disease which is one of the most common causes of blindness in Ireland.

AMD (age-related macular degeneration) affects central vision, making it blurry. Central vision is necessary for everyday activities such as reading, driving and watching television. The condition affects one in 10 people over the age of 50.

Scientists at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have found that a part of the immune system, known as IL-18, acts as a ‘guardian of eyesight'. It does this by suppressing the production of blood vessels located behind the eye that can be damaging.

Furthermore, early tests suggest that IL-18 can be administered non-invasively. This would represent a big improvement on current treatments for AMD.

"We were initially concerned that IL-18 might cause damage to the sensitive cells of the retina, because it is typically linked to inflammation. But surprisingly we found that low doses had no adverse effects on the retina and yet still suppressed abnormal blood vessel growth," noted the study's first author, Assistant Professor Sarah Doyle.

There are two types of AMD - wet and dry. While most cases are dry, some 90% of people who develop wet AMD become blind as a result.

With wet AMD, blood vessels underneath the retina start to grow abnormally. This leads to almost immediate central blindness, which has a huge impact on the day-to-day lives of sufferers.

The TCD scientists pointed out that the current treatment of wet AMD is limited to the end stages of the condition and involves regular injections of antibodies directly into the eye. This is done to ‘mop up a problematic molecule' known as VEGF.

However, they discovered that IL-18 inhibits VEGF production. In fact, it works as effectively and involves a non-invasive intravenous injection, as opposed to an injection into the eye.

Details of these findings were published in the journal, Science Translational Medicine.

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