Surgeons in Oxford have used a new technique of gene therapy to help improve the vision of six patients who would have gone blind without the treatment.
The condition which the gene therapy was used to treat choroidermeia, a condition which causes the light-detecting cells at the back of the eye to determinate and dye gradually, leading to impaired site and finally complete blindness. The condition effects approximately 1,000 people in the UK and has causes the deterioration of vision in one in four people over the age of 75. The gene therapy itself begins by lifting the retina by injecting fluid into the back of the eye. DNA is then injected into the retina, inserting “working” copies of the faulty genes to prevent the rest of the light-detecting cells from dying.
Jonathan Wyatt, 63, was the first patient to undergo the gene therapy and found that, not only did the operation stabilise his vision, but it also significantly improves it, allowing him to now read three lines further down on an optician’s sight chart. Before the operation Mr Wyatt still had a little bit of vision, however since the operation his wife explained that “he is more independent, he can find things he couldn’t before, he can go to the shops on his own and he’s less of a nuisance!”.
There was also success for the other patients in the trial. Wayne Thompson, said that he noticed an immediate effect after the operation saying “my colour vision improves. Trees and flowers seemed much more vivid and I was able to see start for the first time since I was 17 when my vision began to deteriorate”. After being told that he would not see his daughter, aged 9, grow up, he is now hoping to see his grandchildren grow up.
Professor Robert MacLaren, the surgeon who led the research was “absolutely delighted” by the outcome, saying “we really couldn’t ask for a better result”. He believes that the success of the process demonstrates the principle that gene therapy could be used to cure other forms of genetic blindness such as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. As summed up by Clara Aglen of the Royal National Institute of Blind People “As this process advances there is hope that is could be transferred across and provide a cure for these common causes of blindness”.
Source:
BBC news – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25718064
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