In a laboratory study in Oxford, researchers have shown how it might be possible to reverse blindness using gene therapy to reprogram cells at the back of the eye to become light sensitive. Most causes of untreatable blindness occur due to loss of the millions of light-sensitive photoreceptor cells that line the retina, similar to the pixels in a digital camera. The remaining retinal nerve cells which are not light sensitive, however, remain in the eye.
Researcher and colleagues used a viral vector to express a light-sensitive protein, melanopsin, in the residual retinal cells in mice which were blind from retinitis pigmentosa, the most common cause of blindness in young people. The mice were monitored for over a year and they maintained vision during this time, being able to recognise objects in their environment which indicated a high level of visual perception. The cells expressing…
