PulseSight Therapeutics presented new research this week at the EURetina 2025 congress in Paris on the role of iron dysregulation in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), highlighting findings that support development of its investigational therapy PST-611 for dry AMD and geographic atrophy.

The company, in collaboration with the French research organization Inserm and Cochin Hospital in Paris, analyzed one of the largest aqueous humor datasets collected from patients with dry AMD and geographic atrophy, as well as age-matched controls. Results confirmed elevated iron levels and increased transferrin saturation in AMD patients, suggesting a disruption in iron regulation. Investigators noted that this imbalance contributes to oxidative stress and ferroptosis, a form of iron-dependent cell death increasingly linked to AMD progression.

PulseSight also reported new mechanistic data showing that transferrin, an iron-binding glycoprotein, may protect against ferroptosis by maintaining iron balance. These findings provide further rationale for PST-611, a non-viral vectorized therapy designed to encode transferrin and preserve retinal structure and function. PST-611 entered a phase 1 clinical trial earlier this year.