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May 27, 2005

Antibiotic Minocycline May Prevent Blindness

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Experiments in rats suggest that minocycline, an antibiotic, could curb a common cause of vision problems in people with diabetes.

Minocycline is a "strong candidate for further consideration as a therapeutic drug in reducing the retinal complications of diabetes," Dr. J. Kyle Krady and colleagues from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey write in the medical journal Diabetes.

Recent evidence has suggested that diabetes leads to ongoing inflammatory activity within the retina, Krady explained. Immune cells called microglia are the main sources of inflammation in the retina, and "therefore represent an important target for reducing this inflammation."

Posted by Diabetologica at May 27, 2005 6:30 AM