From my basic knowledge of our retina, it is in the back of
the eye and is as delicate as a wet bit of tissue paper. It works the same way as the film in a camera
and it has the complex job of collecting the light that enters the front of the
eye and converting it to electrical signals that are then transmitted as
information to the brain.
So our best hope is cell transplants. Research is being studied and the cells not
only migrate to the retina, and show early signs of connecting to the brain, a
necessary step in restoring sight.
The transplants worked best when the eye was damaged. Whereas
a healthy eyes the stem cells do not migrate to the right area or even the
right part of the eye.
This is amazing. So healthy eyes transplanting the cells
don’t know where to go, damaged eyes, the transplants work so well, finding the
correct place to go and start to work by restoring sight.
These cells somehow sense they are needed, and begin to
differentiate into cells that could take on the job of retinal neurons.
But first the technique has to show good results in animals,
and then start on human trials. The experts suggest within ten years a number I
have heard so much before. But let’s hope less than that as I heard last week
someone saying that in science, just one penny needs to drop and before you
know it, there is a huge change. Well, that is the simplistic interpretation of
what was said.
Sometimes when we look online it’s really confusing and so
much medical jargon. Terminology that may as well be a foreign language to us.
I hope I’m writing these words in a way we can all understand.
I’m sure most of what I am writing the majority of you all
have read before and even have been able to find more advanced research, but
from my knowledge, there are still a lot of people out there who can’t seem to
obtain any useful information, for whatever reason.
As for Gene therapy
Researchers at Oxford University have discovered by replacing
a missing gene into the retina they can prevent cells from degenerating.
The therapy even improves the sight of those who are just
starting to lose their sight. The treatments have surpassed expectations.
For two years now two men whose sight was dramatically
failing, have shown signs of improvement.
Gene therapy can be applied before the onset of vision loss.
It will be a one off treatment too. The two men, who have been tested with the
gene therapy, don’t have RP but a form of a disease which is similar.
The process takes between forty minutes and two hours. It
has been likened to a cataract operation and has shown to have immediate results.
Roughly forty million people across the world are blind and
for a long time most forms of blindness, were permanent conditions. But
recently scientists have made headway into changing that.
New treatments like
stem cell gene therapy and bionic eye implants are already starting to restore
some patient’s sight. These technologies
are expected to keep improving.
Some researchers are working on the benefits of using a patient’s
own stem cells. This would be better because it skirts the ethical issues of
embryonic stem cells, and the patient’s body won’t try to reject the cells
Another project which is in early stages implants for the
brain, rather than the eye. The idea here is to tap direction into the visual
cortex, the brain region that processes sight.
So there is hope for the blind. It’s now all about
awareness, funding and great minds who believe in the work they are
researching!
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