A form of vitamin B1 could become a new and effective treatment for one of the worlds leading causes of blindness, according to Texas scientists.
Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have presented promising results achieved with benfotiamene, a fat-soluble form of vitamin B1 which is absorbed rapidly by the body and lacks negative side effects.
In their study, they injected laboratory rats with toxins that produce a reaction mimicking uveitis and noticed that when the rats were fed benfotiamene they failed to develop any signs of the inflammatory disorder.
Uveitis, an inflammation of the tissue located just below the outer surface of the eye, is responsible for 10 to 15 percent of blindness cases in the U.S and even more elsewhere in the world.
“Benfotiamene strongly suppresses this eye-damaging condition and the biochemical markers we associate with it,” said UTMB associate professor Kota V. Ramana, senior author of the study.
He expressed hope that simple nutritional supplements with vitamin B1 will prove to be a new effective therapy for this debilitating condition. 