The Dry Form of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD): The Current Concepts of Pathogenesis and Prospects for Treatment

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a disease that causes varying degrees of blindness, which afflicts millions of adults in their later years. Preliminary changes occur during normal aging, but in some individuals the pathology leads to the development of AMD. The pathology seems to be a mixture of biochemical, cellular, and molecular events. Lipofuscinogenesis and early drusen genesis are in the early stages of AMD and their inhibition or reversal would dramatically increase the quality of vision in elderly people. The disease is characterized by abnormal extracellular deposits, known as drusen, which accumulate along the basal surface of the retinal pigmented epithelium RPE. Widespread drusen deposition is associated with retinal pigmented epithelial cell dysfunction and degeneration of the photoreceptors. Recent studies have shown that drusen contain a variety of immunomodulatory molecules, suggesting that the process of drusen formation involves local inflammatory events, including activation of the complement cascade. Molecular pathways involved in the etiology of this disease and the potential prospects of its treatment will be presented on the basis of the results of the current studies.