A team of scientists from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania performed a study, examined in an article in Science Daily, on three patients suffering from congenital blindness. The study consisted of inserting a specific gene within the patients by injection of vectors into the patients eyes. Fortunately the treatments did not trigger any kind of immune response from the eye particularly because the eye is separate from the immune system of the rest of the body. The vector that was injected into the eye was a genetically engineered adeno-associated virus, which carried a normal version of a RPE65 gene. In mutated forms the gene is known as LCA and is responsible for a group of heredity retinal diseases. After studying and treating the patients over a period of one and half to three and half years the doctors began to see improvements in the vision of these patients. The improvements were specifically seen in the area of light sensitivity, for example, the pupil's ability to respond to a range of light intensities. These were great results for the doctors conducting the study. Partial vision was able to be restored to the same patients who were not able to previously see anything. This is a great medical advancement and hopefully is not the end to discoveries in the field of restoration of vision.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Working Towards a Cure for Inherited Blindness
A team of scientists from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania performed a study, examined in an article in Science Daily, on three patients suffering from congenital blindness. The study consisted of inserting a specific gene within the patients by injection of vectors into the patients eyes. Fortunately the treatments did not trigger any kind of immune response from the eye particularly because the eye is separate from the immune system of the rest of the body. The vector that was injected into the eye was a genetically engineered adeno-associated virus, which carried a normal version of a RPE65 gene. In mutated forms the gene is known as LCA and is responsible for a group of heredity retinal diseases. After studying and treating the patients over a period of one and half to three and half years the doctors began to see improvements in the vision of these patients. The improvements were specifically seen in the area of light sensitivity, for example, the pupil's ability to respond to a range of light intensities. These were great results for the doctors conducting the study. Partial vision was able to be restored to the same patients who were not able to previously see anything. This is a great medical advancement and hopefully is not the end to discoveries in the field of restoration of vision.
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Wow what a discovery. Its amazing how viruses could be used to treat different illnesses and disabilities. As you haves stated, I hope they continue to continue research and possibly restore vision in all patients who are blind.
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