Thursday, December 10, 2020

Gene therapy injected in one eye can travel to the other eye

 Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, which usually affects young men and leads to progressive sight loss. It is caused by a mutation in one of the genes inside mitochondria, the energy-producing structures inside cells. This kills off cells of the retina, the patch of tissue at the back of the eye that turns light into electrical signals. The gene therapy involves injecting a harmless virus containing the gene into the eye, where it is taken up by retinal cells. These start making the protein encoded by this gene, which passes into their mitochondria and helps preserve their remaining retina. A recent trial was deemed unsuccessful because the virus can just leave the eye. It is said that the way the virus travels is through the optic nerve and eventually transports to the other optic nerve where both optic nerves meet.





https://www.newscientist.com/article/2262327-gene-therapy-injected-in-one-eye-can-travel-to-the-other-eye/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03476-x

1 comment:

  1. What an interesting article! I have never heard of this condition before, but the treatment you described sounds really neat. I hope adjustments are made, so that a true treatment can be applied to treat those effected.

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