Citicoline: A Food Beneficial for Patients Suffering from or Threated with Glaucoma

Abstract

Oral form of citicoline, a nootropic and neuroprotective drug in use for almost five decades, recently was pronounced a food supplement in both USA and EU. The idea of adding citicoline to topical treatment of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) aimed at decreasing intraocular pressure (IOP) appeared as a logical consequence of accepting neurodegenerative character of this disease. Experimental data, and also few clinical studies indicate that this substance has potential to counteract some important pathological mechanisms which seem to contribute to POAG initiation and progression, such as excitotoxicity and oxidative stress.

Keywords: citicoline; neuroprotection; primary open angle glaucoma.

Figure 1

Survival curves for visual field worsening of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients treated with intraocular pressure (IOP)-decreasing topical therapy with or without addition of citicoline given intramuscularly. (Reproduced with permission from John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Virno et al., 2000).

Figure 2

Comparison of changes in amplitudes of pattern electroretinograms in POAG patients treated with a topical IOP-decreasing therapy non-treated open angle glaucoma (NT-OAG), and treated with citicoline intramuscularly open angle glaucoma (TI-OAG) or orally open angle glaucoma (TO-OAG). *p < 0.01, ^§p > 0.01. (Reproduced with permission from Elsevier, Inc., Parisi et al., 2008).

Figure 3

Change in the rate of progression (RoP) of POAG following addition of oral citicoline to a topical antiglaucoma therapy. B, Baseline. (Reproduced with permission from Karger Publishers, Ottobelli et al., 2013).