NEI and NHS Team Up to Study Ocular Immunology

The NEI, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has become the first U.S. government agency to develop a formal collaborative research and training agreement with the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS). The agreement was signed earlier this year. Human ocular immunology will be the initial focus of the collaboration. Human immune system response can lead to inflammation which has been associated with diseases such as uveitis, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy.

New Treatment Study about Uveitis Released

"Patients with uveitis, the fifth leading cause of vision loss in the United States, treated with either systemic anti-inflammatory medicine or with a time-release implant surgically placed inside the eye experienced a similar degree of visual improvement over two years, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin," according to a PennMedicine press release.  "Results from the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment (MUST) Trial, supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), are published online in the journal Ophthalmology." Read more.

Eye Implant Releases Meds

"An implant that releases the medication dexamethasone within the eye appears safe and effective for the treatment of some types of uveitis (swelling and inflammation in the eye's middle layer), according to a report posted online today that will appear in the May print issue of Archives of Ophthalmology," according to MedicalNewsToday.