Vascular endothelial growth factor and its inhibitor in age-related macular degeneration

Intraocular angiogenesis is considered the leading cause for severe loss of vision, and contributes to many ocular diseases such as neovascular age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinopathy of prematurity, the main causes of blindness in developed countries.1 An enormous body of work has demonstrated that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a prominent role as mediator in the procedure of pathological angiogenesis. This makes VEGF a potential target for the medical therapies of retinal angiogenesis and some clinical trials have proved the efficacy of anti-VEGF strategies. This review evaluates the role of VEGF in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration and provides an overview of recent developments in therapeutic modalities.