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Ed Yeates ReportingWithin five years you could have your own gene chip as sort of a map for blood tests to identify your likelihood of developing a major eye disease before it ever happens. And it might even allow doctors to stop the disease before it ever happens.
Age related macular degeneration is now the most common cause of irreversible loss of vision. But today's announcement of the link between a gene and an early formation in the eye could be the first step in slowing down, if not stopping, the disease.
Ronald Morgan was diagnosed with macular degeneration at the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center two years ago.
Ronald Morgan, Patient: "The new treatment that we are having now is a new drug called Macogen that we're injecting every six weeks."
But what if Ronald's genetic predisposition to the disease was marked like a map much earlier so early that doctors could intervene with preventive treatment long before even the first inkling of the disease showed up?
Kang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., University of Utah Dept. of Ophthalmology: "It is our main goal to ultimately eliminate visual loss due to macular degeneration in our patients."
And that's exactly what Dr. Kang Zhang and his colleagues are doing. They've linked a gene with a slight yellowish accumulation of lipid protein and cellular debris in the eye called soft drusen.
If you had the beginnings of this yellowish protein buildup in my eye, an ophthalmologist would see it in the center, looking in the back of the eye. Having soft drusen doesn't necessarily mean you'll develop macular degeneration, but now if it's linked with this gene and more Dr. Zhang's lab is searching for. People could have a simple routine blood test to keep track of their risk, allowing early preventive measures like additives to the eye plus changes in lifestyle and diet.
Dr. Zhang: "If you are on a combination of Vitamin A,E, C and Zinc and Copper, you will have a much lower chance of developing macular degeneration."
Macular Degeneration involves a dark blurring of the center part of the eye. As the disease progresses, patients retain only limited peripheral or side vision at the most.
