Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 25, 2003|Volume 31, Number 27

Study shows Icon molecule may offer key
to preventing macular degeneration

A molecule that destroys blood vessels in tumors is also effective against blood vessels associated with macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness after age 55, according to a collaborative study by scientists at Yale and the University of Louisville.

Using animal models of the human disease, they reported that administering a synthetic antibody-like molecule, called an Icon, activated a potent immune response that eradicated specifically the blood vessels that form beneath the retina. These vessels leak fluid that damages the macular region of the retina, causing progressive loss of central vision.

The study was published in the March 4 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and reported as a news item in the April 4 issue of Nature Medicine. The authors are Professor Alan Garen and associate research scientist Dr. Zhiwei Hu of Yale's Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and Henry Kaplan and Dr. Puran Bora and their associates at the University of Louisville.

The Icon, which was developed at Yale, functions as an antibody that targets pathological blood vessels with much greater affinity and specificity than can be achieved by a normal antibody. Another advantage is that the Icon can be synthesized as an all-human molecule for clinical use.

Once pre-clinical experiments are completed at Louisville, an application will be filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to test the Icon for treating patients with macular degeneration.

Support for the study at Yale was provided by the National Institutes of Health and the International Retinal Research Foundation based in Atlanta.

-- By Jacqueline Weaver

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Campus Notes