Gene therapy gives the blind new hope for partial vision restoration
Amman2 min read
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A clinical trial has shown promising results in restoring part of the visual ability in people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that leads to the damage of retinal cells and gradual vision loss.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the trial included ten people suffering from very severe vision loss. The treatment relied on injecting a specific gene into the eye to make the remaining cells in the retina sensitive to light, using a technique known as "optogenetics."
After the treatment, the participants wore glasses equipped with a camera that converts surrounding scenes into light signals received by the modified cells, which helped some of them perceive light and locate objects better.
The results showed an improvement in light sensitivity in seven out of ten participants, while six of them recorded clinically significant improvement. Some patients also became more capable of noticing objects, determining their locations, and reaching them with greater accuracy, and the improvement lasted for months or years in four participants.
Brain activity scans also showed that the visual cortex was able to receive and process the new visual signals, indicating the brain's potential to utilize these signals even after long-term vision loss.
Despite these encouraging results, the patients did not regain normal vision and remained unable to read or see normally, while researchers believe this technique represents a promising step toward developing future treatments for certain types of genetic blindness.
