Abstract
Purpose :
Dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a retinal degenerative disease without known treatment. The advanced form of the disease is characterized by irreversible growth of geographic atrophy (GA) and corresponding loss of vision. Here we provide an initial analysis of an ongoing phase 2 study analyzing GA growth rate in participants taking oral antioxidants resveratrol, quercetin, and curcumin (RQC).
Methods :
Participants were recruited from the office of Zaparackas & Knepper Ltd. In Chicago, Illinois (n=12). All participants took oral RQC daily and completed one year of follow-up. GA area was measured manually using OCT autofluorescent images taken at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. Measurements were made in mm2 and adjusted using square root transformation (mm) to account for variation in baseline lesion size. The annual GA growth rate of subjects taking RQC was calculated as the change in area (mm2 or mm) per year and compared with the expected growth rate of untreated subjects based on a meta-analysis of natural history studies by Wang et al. (2021).
Results :
The mean geographic atrophy area increased from 1.48 mm2 ± 1.85 mm2 (1.05 ± 0.65 mm) at baseline to 1.84 ± 2.18 mm2 (1.17 ±0.71 mm) after 12 months. The mean annual growth rate was 0.35 ± 0.35 mm2/year (0.12 ± 0.07 mm/year). The growth rate of participants taking RQC was significantly lower than untreated subjects both before (p=0.0004) and after (p<0.0001) square root transformation.
Conclusions :
Advanced dry AMD patients taking oral RQC had a low GA growth rate compared with untreated subjects. These results support our previous phase 1 results and suggest that RQC may be a promising oral therapy for patients with advanced dry AMD.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.