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Drug may help macular degeneration

BOSTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. and Japanese researchers suggest an experimental drug may cure age-related macular degeneration -- a cause of blindness.

The study, published in The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal, found giving endostatin to mice significantly reduced abnormal blood vessel growth within the eye. Endostatin is an experimental drug being tested in cancer patients for restricting the formation of abnormal blood vessels supplying blood to tumors.

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Macular degeneration is characterized by such vessel growth.

"Our study provides intriguing findings that may lead to a better treatment of age-related macular degeneration," lead study author Alexander Marneros of the Harvard Medical School said in a statement. "But clinical studies in patients with age-related macular degeneration are still necessary."

Mice without endostatin were about three times more likely than the others to develop advanced age-related macular degeneration. When the researchers administered endostatin to both sets of mice, the number of abnormal blood vessels reduced to normal levels.

In control mice -- with normal levels of endostatin -- the number of abnormal blood vessels was practically undetectable.

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