29/04/2011

Diabetes and metabolism group at Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), led by Dr. Rafael Simó, will coordinate a European consortium to investigate early treatment of diabetic retinopathy (EUROCONDOR), the leading cause of blindness among people of working age in developed countries. The project will develop a controlled clinical trial in phase II and III that will try to test the effectiveness of somatostatin, a neuroprotective drug in early stages of the disease to prevent or delay its progression.The main objective of this European consortium, in which participate 18 partners from 8 countries and will start working in late 2011, is studying how to influence therapeutically in retinal neurodegeneration that occurs before the microvascular is affected and not wait advanced stages of the problem when there are few options are riskier. To this end will be used the topical use of neuroprotective agents (brimonidine and somatostatin). The leadership of VHIR's group comes from being the first to publish the keys of neurodegeneration in the eyes of diabetic patients and demonstrate the existence of a deficit of somatostatin in the retina of these patients.