Genetic Polymorphisms of CFH and ARMS2 Do Not Predict Response to Antioxidants and Zinc in Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Independent Statistical Evaluations of Data from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Considerable controversy has erupted in recent years regarding whether genotyping should be part of standard care for patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who are being considered for treatment with antioxidants and zinc.

The researchers aimed to determine whether genotype predicts response to supplements in AMD.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 879 participants taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were older adults, both men and women.

The population of interest was AREDS participants with AMD worse than category 1 and genotyping data available.

Data from the 2 groups overlap imperfectly with respect to measurements made: the largest common set involved 879 participants for whom the same CFH and ARMS2 single nucleotide polymorphisms were measured by both groups.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Three separate statistical teams reanalyzed data derived from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), receiving data prepared by the AREDS investigators and, separately, data from investigators reporting findings that support the use of genotyping.

Each team took a separate but complementary approach.

One team focused on data concordance between conflicting studies.

A second team focused on replicating the key claim of an interaction between genotype and treatment.

The third team took a blank slate approach in attempting to find baseline predictors of treatment response.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Alleles, Antioxidants, Complement Factor H, DNA, Dietary Supplements, Disease Progression and Genotype.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 879 participants.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2018 (Ophthalmology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.