A team of researchers, led by University of Kentucky ophthalmologist Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, has discovered a molecular mechanism implicated in geographic atrophy, the major cause of untreatable blindness in the industrialized world.
Their article, “DICER1 Deficit Induces Alu RNA Toxicity in Age-Related Macular Degeneration,” was published online by the journal Nature on Feb. 6 (DOI: 10.1038/nature09830).
Concurrent with this discovery, Ambati’s laboratory developed two promising therapies for the prevention of the condition. This study also elaborates, for the first time, a disease-causing role for a large section of the human genome once regarded as non-coding “junk DNA.”
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