There is new hope for reducing vision loss in patients with diabetes type 1 or type 2. A Phase III clinical trial conducted by an international multicenter reveals that 32 mg per day of ruboxistaurin (RBX), a new oral medication, may reduce the risk of vision loss. The enzyme PKC-beta is produced by the enzyme protein kinase C, which is necessary for energy in the body. However, PKC-beta produces complications in the body and eyes of diabetics. RBX prohibits the production of BKC-beta, thereby reducing vision loss. Patients in the clinical trials suffered no serious side effects of RBX.

Patients with diabetic macular edema did particularly well in the study, according to study chairman Lloyd Paul Aiello, MD, PhD, head of Joslin's Section on Eye Research, director of Joslin's Beetham Eye Institute and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. However, Aiello also said that progression to proliferative diabetic retinopathy did not decrease in patients who took RBX.

By Ellie Kuykendall