Facilitation of retinal function recovery by coumarin derivatives.

Ischemic retinopathy is a difficult disease to treat, although numerous drugs have been tried in the clinics. Coumarin was one of those tried as an anti-coagulant with a marginal efficacy. In this study, 15 coumarin derivatives were studied on the b-wave recovery in electroretinogram which is an indicator of the functional recovery of retina after ischemic insult. It was found that when positions 6, 7 and 8 were occupied by various functional groups, the b-wave recovery could be markedly enhanced. On the other hand, single occupation of position 3 with any functional group would cause damaging effects to the anti-ischemic activity. It is concluded that some coumarin derivatives with two or all of these positions at 6, 7 and 8 occupied by certain functional groups could result in useful drugs for the treatment of ischemic retinopathy.