Glaucoma vitamin trial: World-first treatment Melbourne researchers believe will prevent blindness

AN over-the-counter vitamin will be offered to Victorians with glaucoma, in a world-first trial that Melbourne researchers believe will prevent and even reverse blindness.

EXCLUSIVE: AN over-the-counter vitamin will be offered to Victorians with glaucoma, in a world-first trial that Melbourne researchers believe will prevent and even reverse blindness.

The clinical trial follows a recent breakthrough in the US. Researchers there found that high doses of vitamin B3 given to glaucoma-prone mice could ward off the disease, and even ­reverse age-related damage to the optic nerve.

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The Centre for Eye ­Research Australia, at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, is leading the first human trial aiming to boost treatment options for glaucoma, which ­affects 60 million people. About 300,000 Australians have the disease, but only half are aware of that as there are no symptoms early on.

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Glaucoma causes the death of ganglion cells at the back of the eye. Those cells send messages from the eye to the brain.

CERA research fellow and optometrist Dr Flora Hui, who is conducting the trial, said her institute had shown that as people get older, a specific part of mitochondria — the “batteries” of the ganglion cells — ­become less effective at producing the energy.

Melbourne’s Centre for Eye ­Research Australia is leading the first human trial aiming to boost treatment options for glaucoma.

Dr Hui said vitamin B3 (nicotinamide) worked by replenishing the main molecule that helped the mitochondria produce energy, keeping the cells healthier for longer.

“It’s really exciting because it’s one of the few times where we can have a therapy for glaucoma that can actually protect the nerve cells at the back of the eye directly,” Dr Hui said.

Trial leader and CERA ­director Professor Jonathan Crowston said his laboratory had recently found that in the early stages after an injury eyesight can recover, but that ability to reverse damage reduces with age.

People can often lose half their vision before they know there is a problem.

And close relatives of people with glaucoma have up to 10 times greater risk of developing the condition.

A Centre for Eye Research Australia lab has recently found that in the early stages after an injury eyesight can recover.

Dr Hui said glaucoma was currently treated with eye drops, tablets and surgery, which all aimed to lower pressure in the eye. This was once believed to be the sole cause of the disease.

But she said that given it was now known that people with low eye pressure also developed the condition, if this trial was successful it would give them another safe and inexpensive option for early intervention.

“We call it the ‘silent thief’ of sight. It doesn’t hurt and because you lose sight in your periphery first, it's typically not noticed until there is existing damage,” Dr Hui said.

“More and more, we’re seeing people in their 40s and 50s present with glaucoma. They have so much life ahead of them, so to have progressive vision loss is devastating.”

Trial participant Rosemary Workman, 61, was diagnosed with glaucoma three years ago.

She now manages the condition with twice-daily eyedrops and she said was hopeful of there being another safe and effective treatment for the common condition.

“Anything you can do to manage the risk properly makes it less likely that you will lose your sight,” Ms Workman said.

“But even if it does progress, you want to know you have tried everything available.”

The trial will see 60 Victorians with glaucoma given either the vitamin or placebo first for three months, followed by the other tablet for the remaining three months of the trial.

For details on how to take part in the study, go to the website cera.org.au

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