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Blood Pressure Drugs Could Save Eyesight

(February 25, 2010) - Scientists are reporting new evidence that certain high blood pressure drugs (Read about "Hypertension: High Blood Pressure") may be useful in preventing and treating diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of vision loss in people with diabetes. (Read about "Diabetes")

The study, the largest to date on proteins in the retina (Read about "The Eye"), could lead to new ways to prevent or treat the sight-threatening disease, they say. The findings are in American Chemical Society's Journal of Proteome Research.

The study points out that diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes, which affects millions of people worldwide. It involves damage to blood vessels in the retina, the light sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. Previous studies suggested that drugs used to treat high blood pressure, including ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), may help prevent the condition.

The scientists analyzed proteins from the retinas laboratory mice with normal blood pressure and diabetes and compared them to those of non-diabetic mice. They identified 65 abnormal proteins in the diabetic mice out of more than 1,700 proteins in the study. Treatment with the ARB medication, candesartan, prevented the abnormal changes in more than 70 percent of the proteins.