An initial clinical trial is suggesting that an inexpensive, long-approved HIV drug can improve vision in patients with a blinding complication of diabetes more effectively – and at a much lower cost – than many existing treatments,. Furthermore, the drug is taken orally, potentially offering patients an alternative to monthly injections directly into their eyes.
The drug, lamivudine, could represent an important new option for millions of patients with diabetic macular oedema, a condition which causes fluid to build up in the retina of the eye. It’s estimated that approximately 1 in 14 people with diabetes develop the sight-stealing eye disorder, and there are more than 37 million adults living with diabetes in the United States alone.
Collaborators at Brazil’s Universidade Federal de São Paulo enrolled two dozen adults with diabetic macular oedema in a small randomized clinical trial. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either lamivudine or a harmless placebo, in addition to injections of the drug bevacizumab into their eyes starting after four weeks.
The participants who received lamivudine showed significant vision improvements even before their first eye injections. Their ability to read letters on an eye chart improved by 9.8 letters (about 2 lines on the eye chart) at four weeks, while the participants receiving placebo saw their ability decrease by 1.8 letters. A month after the bevacizumab injections, the lamivudine recipients had improved by as many as 16.9 letters (more than 3 lines on the eye chart), while the placebo group, receiving bevacizumab alone, had increased by only 5.3.
The results suggest that lamivudine may work both alone and in conjunction with bevacizumab injections, although larger studies will be needed to bear that out, the researchers say. However, lamivudine alone could be lifechanging for patients in many areas of the world with limited access to specialty doctors or who are unable to afford or travel to monthly eye appointments.
