British researchers are celebrating pin-pointing a gene for a common cause of blindness that afflicts elderly people.
Researchers at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, say the finding should open the way for the development of new treatments for age-related macular degeneration.
The latest research has studied the 3 (C3) gene and found two rare mutations linked to the disease.
The researchers say this suggests the immune system plays a role in the development of the disease.
The British researchers were among a team of 50 working in 30 international centres studying the genes of more than 2,000 patients for the research, published in Nature Genetics.
Researcher Professor Tony Moore said: "The identification of these genes requires access to very large numbers of patients with AMD which would not be available from a single centre.
"The results demonstrate the importance of abnormal immune function in AMD and should eventually lead to new treatments for AMD which target the complement pathway.
Nat Genet.15 September 2013; doi: 10.1038/ng.2758.
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