A novel model of persistent retinal neovascularization for the development of sustained anti-VEGF therapies

Abstract

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapies lead to a major breakthrough in treatment of neovascular retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy. Current management of these conditions require regular and frequent intravitreal injections to prevent disease recurrence once the effect of the injected drug wears off. This has led to a pressing clinical need of developing sustained release formulations or therapies with longer duration. A major drawback in developing such therapies is that the currently available animal models show spontaneous regression of vascular leakage. They therefore not only fail to recapitulate retinal vascular disease i..