About 15 million people in the U.S. suffer from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is the leading cause of blindness and central vision loss in people age 65 and older.

Now researchers from Mass. Eye and Ear/ Harvard Medical School performed research using high-dose (80mg) atorvastatin and found it was associated with a regression of these lipid deposits and improvement in visual acuity, as well as staved off progression of the disease in high-risk patients.

AMD is associated with an accumulation of drusen (deposits of lipid and fatty proteins) under the retina, and patients with AMD experience blurred vision or blindness in the center of the visual field. 

There are two forms of AMD: “wet” and “dry.” The wet form accounts for approximately 15 percent of AMD cases and is treated using therapies previously developed at these Massachusetts institutions. The “dry” form is more common, accounting for approximately 85 percent of cases, and effective therapies are currently lacking.

Twenty-three patients with dry AMD marked by soft lipid deposits in the outer retina were treated with the drug.  Of the 23 patients, 10 experienced an elimination of the deposits under the retina and mild improvement in visual acuity. Other techniques that have attempted to eliminate the deposits have mostly failed with the disease continuing to progress to more advanced dry AMD or a conversion to the wet form of AMD.

This treatment is currently in the research stage. As the next step the investigators plan to expand to a larger prospective multicenter trial to further investigate the efficacy of the treatment in a larger sample of patients with dry AMD, they said in the study, which appears in the new online journal EBioMedicine.