"A drug already used safely to treat Parkinsons disease restless leg syndrome and other movement disorders also could delay or prevent the most common cause of blindness affecting more than  million older Americans  agerelated macular degeneration AMD. Researchers have discovered that patients who take the drug LDOPA are significantly less likely to develop AMD and if they do get AMD its at a significantly older age according to the study published online Nov.  in the American Journal of Medicine. The retrospective study was led by researchers at Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation University of Arizona Medical College of Wisconsin University of Miami Essentia Health Stanford University and University of Southern California. Research points to this as a pathway to regulate and prevent this most common cause of blindness in adults said Murray Brilliant Ph.D. director Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation Center for Human Genetics Marshfield Wisconsin. Imagine telling patients we potentially have medication that will allow them to see and continue enjoying life their family and perform every day activities as they age. That is very powerful. AMD the No.  cause of legal blindness in adults over  is a progressive eye condition affecting as many as one in three adults. The disease attacks the macula of the eye where the sharpest central vision occurs causing central blindness. This vision is used to drive read recognize faces and perform daily tasks. AMD spares the peripheral vision leaving dim images or black holes at the center of vision.  LDOPA is a natural byproduct of pigmentation and is made in a layer of cells in the back of the eye that functions to promote health and survival of retinal tissues. Researchers asked the question if people taking LDOPA as a medicine are protected from AMD. The obvious question was if the LDOPA no longer produced was supplemented via pill form does it have the potential to serve as a preventive medicine against AMD Brilliant said. We need more research but this first step is promising. Albinism research leads to hope  This work grew out of research using albino mouse models. Mice as well as humans who have albinism or lack of pigmentation have profound vision loss and changes in the eye structure  especially the macula the ovalshaped area near the center of the retina associated with a persons ability to see clearly.  Race and ocular pigmentation are known risk factors for developing AMD indicating darker pigmentation may protect from the disease as it occurs much much more frequently in the white population than black or Hispanic populations. This led to the hypothesis that those with darker pigmentation may have greater LDOPA signaling in the RPE. To test this researchers examined health records of  Marshfield Clinic patients looking for those with AMD those taking LDOPA and those with both LDOPA and AMD. They then determined the age patients developed AMD. According to national statistics the average age at which individuals are given LDOPA is  the average age of AMD diagnosis is . In those people who got LDOPA before being diagnosed with AMD their AMD diagnosis occurred eight years later than those without LDOPA. These provocative results were then confirmed in a much larger data set of  million patients where similar results were observed and the study expanded to include prevention and delay of wet AMD the most devastating form of the disease. In all the groups examined data suggests LDOPA may prevent or delay AMD. This study suggests an intriguing link between patients taking LDOPA and a lower incidence and delayed onset of AMD said Paul A. Sieving M.D. Ph.D. director of the National Eye Institute. Showing that LDOPA causes this protective effect will require further investigation but if confirmed could lead to new drugs or combination therapies for AMD that target DOPAresponsive cells in the retina.  The next step in this research is to perform a clinical trial to determine the ability of this drug to prevent AMD. Results suggest a new path forward in our fight against AMD that may even include a strategy to prevent those at risk of the disease from ever developing it said Brian McKay Ph.D. associate professor Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science University of Arizona. In the end LDOPA may not be the drug that ends the disease but the pathway identified is likely to be a key observation as the search for a cure continues.  This research titled Mining Retrospective Data for Virtual Prospective Drug Repurposing LDOPA and Agerelated Macular Degeneration was supported by National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences National Human Genome Research Institute Research to Prevent Blindness Bright Focus Foundation The Edward N.  Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation Wisconsin Genomics Initiative National Eye Institute Marshfield Clinic and University of Arizona. Marshfield Clinic provides patient care research and education with more than  locations in northern central and western Wisconsin making it one of the largest comprehensive medical systems in the United States."