Researchers at the Institute of Physiology at the University of Bern (Switzerland) have successfully restored sight to mice with retinitis pigmentosa.
Retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic disease of the eye that gradually destroys cells in the retina and affects about one in 4000 people. People with this disease have damaged photoreceptors that cannot turn light into images. It is incurable, affects two million people worldwide and is the leading cause of hereditary blindness.
Scientists achieved this feat by transforming intact retinal cells into photoreceptor cells, and then they introduced a retinal receptor called melanopsin, sensitive to light and normally involved in the circadian rhythm.
“Thanks to this molecule naturally present in the eye, the bipolar cells replaced the dead photosensitive cells and the mice recovered their sight, reacting to various visual stimuli” explains Sonja Kleinlogela, from the Institute of Physiology at the University of Bern.
Treat other vision problems
“As melanopsin is a molecule naturally present in the eye, rejection by the patient’s immune reaction is highly improbable” explains the researcher.
The results of this study are encouraging, but we will still have to wait before we can perform clinical tests on humans. According to the researchers, “this therapy could be applied to other vision disorders, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which affects one in ten people after 65 years. It will take at least two or three years before clinical tests of this artificial receptor ”.
Read also:
Man regains sight with electronic glasses
Unusual: blind, she regains her sight by bumping into a table
New for AMD
