New Alzheimer's drugs may help prevent glaucoma

British eye specialists have shown for the first time that key proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease are also implicated in glaucoma.

Glaucoma is the major cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and affects 65 million people worldwide and over half a million people in the UK alone.

Glaucoma is associated with abnormally high pressure in the eye, which causes damage to the optic nerve; treatment focuses on reducing pressure, but up to a third of sufferers continue to suffer loss of vision even after pressure returns to normal.

Researchers at University College London (UCL) in the Institute of Ophthalmology, have found that new drugs currently trialled for Alzheimer's disease which target this protein may be used to treat glaucoma.

The discovery suggests that Alzheimer's and glaucoma are triggered by a similar process in nerve cells.

The scientists conducted successful trials in which animals with glaucoma were treated with drugs intended to prevent proteins called beta amyloid building up in the brain and a small-scale trial in humans is planned in the next six months.

The team led by Francesca Cordeiro, used new technology for visualising nerve cell damage in the retina, known as Detection of Apoptosing Retinal Cells.

The technique, which highlights retinal nerve cells damaged by glaucoma, found that a build-up of beta amyloid proteins was often to blame.

They believe the link between the two diseases suggests glaucoma may be an early warning sign of future Alzheimer's.

They say by monitoring the health of nerves in the eyes it may be possible to gauge if an Alzheimer's patient is responding to treatment.

The scientists found in their tests on rats that the use of the new drug Bapineuzumab, which is undergoing clinical trials for Alzheimer's, stopped the proteins building up.

Previous research by Dr. Cordeiro and her colleagues suggested that the retina can provide a window into the brain, allowing doctors to diagnose Alzheimer's disease by looking for evidence of nerve cell death.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia affecting almost 700,000 people in the UK and is expected to exceed one million people by 2025.

The research was funded by the Wellcome Trust and is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.