Macular Degeneration clinical trials at University of California Health

This study is for adults 50 years or older who are losing their clear, sharp central vision. Central vision is needed to be able to read and drive a car. They have been diagnosed with dry age-related macular degeneration (called dry AMD). The macula is the center part of the back of the eye that allows you to see fine detail. In an advanced stage of this disease, areas of the macula die (atrophy), resulting in vision loss. This is called geographic atrophy. This study is looking at a new treatment called ASP7317. It is for slowing or reversing atrophy in dry AMD. ASP7317 is a specially created type of cells derived from human stem cells. ASP7317 cells are injected into the macula of the eye while the person is under anesthesia (local or general). An immunosuppressive medicine (tacrolimus) is also taken around the time of injection of the cells to prevent the body from rejecting them. This study looks at how safe ASP7317 is at 3 different dose levels. Researchers want to learn if the different dose levels of ASP7317 work without causing unwanted medical problems. Each of the 3 doses will be given to 2 groups of people. The first group will be those who have severe vision loss. The second group will be those who have moderate vision loss. The doses are low, medium and high numbers of cells. Tacrolimus will be taken by mouth for 33 days, starting around the time of the injection of ASP7317. In addition, medicines to prevent infection will be taken by mouth for up to 4 weeks starting around the time ASP7317 cells are injected. Each week for the first 4 weeks after the ASP7317 cells have been injected, people taking part in the study will visit the clinic so the researchers can make assessments. Then they will visit again, at weeks 6, 8, 12, 16, 26, and 52 (last week of the study). A substudy will be available at some clinics. These clinics will use a special camera that will allow researchers to look at images of the macular atrophy over time.

The investigators wish to better understand the role of the choriocapillaris (CC) in the formation and progression of non-exudative in age related macular degeneration (armd) by imaging the retinal pigment epithelium (rpe) and the choroidal microvasculature and by studying their inter-dependence to determine if the loss of the CC could prove useful as an anatomic clinical trial endpoint in future drug trials.