The Role of Inflammation in Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common neurodegenerative disease that results in significant morbidity and economic cost to patients and society. While advances in our understanding of the mechanisms of neovascularization have led to breakthrough vision-saving treatments for “wet” AMD, the “dry” variant of AMD, geographic atrophy, still poses significant clinical and scientific challenges. Many genetic and environmental factors have been linked with AMD, providing clues for understanding the disease mechanisms driving “dry” AMD. Evidence of neuroinflammation has been found across a wide spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases including AMD and therapies targeting inflammation, including recent complement inhibitors, have been investigated as treatments for “dry” AMD. Here we survey the evidence from human patients of the potential role of inflammation in AMD and review the efforts to treat AMD with therapeutic interventions targeting mediators of inflammation.