Nicotinamide, iRPE-in-a dish, and age-related macular degeneration therapy development

Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is a complex retinal disorder, which progressively affects central vision in 4% of the population over 60 (1,2). AMD is caused by multiple environmental and genetic risk factors. Most importantly, smoking as well as genetic variants in the CFH gene (chrom. 1) and the ARMS2/HTRA1 locus (chrom. 10) contribute to the disease pathogenesis. Molecular modeling and functional annotation implicated oxidative stress, the innate immune response, lipid metabolism and neovascularisation in the pathobiology of AMD (1,3).