The Herman Trend Alert

April 5, 2017

Therapy to Cure Age-Related Blindness

Medical breakthroughs need courageous support to get from the laboratory to clinical trials. A young, 30-year-old scientist, Kelsey Moody from Beekmantown, had that courage and now we have a major new effective treatment for Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD.

Help for a leading cause of age-related blindness for people over 50.

According to the National Eye Institute, AMD is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the what people usually see with their eyes open. The risk of getting AMD increases to 30 percent over the age of 75.

Experimental treatment showing a lot of promise

The experimental treatment Dr. Moody is working on is called LYSOCLEAR. It is based on the LysoSENS approach advocated by the SENS Research Foundation. The treatment is now being tested for validity at a startup Moody founded in 2013 with a $540,000 USD grant from the Life Extension Foundation.

The root-cause of AMD

Both AMD and juvenile-onset macular degeneration are thought to be caused by the buildup of waste products in the retina cells. This buildup seems to cause the decay of the retina itself and ultimately leads to loss of vision.

Clearing waste out of cells

Cells have their own ways of eliminating and recycling worn-out proteins and other components. One of those systems is the "lysosome"; it is a kind of cellular "incinerator" that contains the most powerful enzymes in the cell for breaking damaged molecules down into convenient pieces. However, sometimes the pieces become fused in ways that the lysosome cannot do its job. The LysoSENS treatment uses special enzymes to break down one of the waste products, called A2E. By breaking down A2E, the researchers expect to prevent and maybe even reverse AMD. For millions of people worldwide, this breakthrough will be a welcome solution.

The tremendous prospects

The prospect of applying the SENS approach to repair the damage of aging is very exciting. Moody's organization is already working on a treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a type of blood cancer, currently with high rates of mortality. The long-term promise of LYSOCLEAR for treating major diseases like Atherosclerosis is attracting a lot of attention as well. This therapy is a breakthrough worth watching.

For more information, visit SENS Research Foundation at http://www.sens.org/research/introduction-to-sens-research/intracellular-junk

Special thanks to the Lifeboat Foundation for highlighting this important breakthrough.