Long‐Lasting Stabilization and Improvement of Dry Age‐Related Macular Degeneration by a High Oral Taurine Dose

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the therapeutic potential of the amino acid taurine in the non‐ neovascular or ∙dry” form of Age‐Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), one of the main causes of vision loss in the elderly, which still lacks effective treatments. Taurine is the most abundant amino acid in the retina and exerts trophic and neuroprotective actions in cellular and animal models. Likewise, a recent Science paper indicates that taurine deficiency is a driver of aging and that taurine supplementation may be an effective treatment for age‐related diseases. Case Description: A dry AMD patient (F.A., male, 62‐yr old) presented a Snellen best corrected visual acuity of 0.15 on the Right Eye (RE) and 0.2 on the Left Eye (LE) in June 2013, together with central retina atrophy and reduction of central macular thickness to 144 µm (RE) and 159 µn (LE) (OCT analysis; Topcon 3D OCT1000). Oral taurine intake (600 mg t.i.d.) arrested macular degeneration over a 5.5‐yr period and moderately improved visual acuity and macular thickness after doubling the dose from 1.8 g/day to 3.6 g/day in December 2018. This improvement remained stable until last control visit in January 2023. Conclusion: Taurine may have disease‐modifying properties in dry AMD at the dose used. The present observations add to existing literature to foster proof‐of‐concept clinical trials using a high oral dose of taurine for the treatment of AMD.