Thursday, January 16, 2014

Gene therapy 'could be used to treat blindness'

Surgeons in Oxford have used a gene therapy technique to improve the vision of six patients who would otherwise have gone blind. The operation involved inserting a gene into the eye cells, a treatment that revived light-detecting cells.The doctors involved believe that the treatment could in time be used to treat common forms of blindness.

Prof Robert MacLaren, the surgeon who led the research, said he was "absolutely delighted" at the outcome.

"The mechanisms of choroideremia and what we are trying to do with the treatment would broadly be applicable to more common causes of blindness," the professor explained.

"Choroideremia shows some similarities with macular degeneration in that we are targeting the same cells. We don't yet know which genes to target for macular degeneration but we do know now how to do it and how to put the genes back in."

Clara Aglen of the Royal National Institute of Blind People is also cautiously optimistic.

She told BBC News: "It is at an early stage at the moment, but it does offer hope for other conditions that have a genetic basis such as macular degeneration and glaucoma.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25718064

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