(July 15, 2015) A
collaboration between scientists in the UK and the USA has shown that gene
therapy can give life-long protection to the light-sensitive photoreceptor
cells responsible for colour vision in a mouse model of the most common
inherited eye disorder.
Results published in the journal Molecular Therapy
demonstrate that the preserved cells were able to drive visually-guided
behaviour, even in later stages of the condition and despite becoming less
sensitive to light.
These findings are significant because they open up a new
line of research to prevent nerve cell death in retinitis pigmentosa and
age-related macular degeneration. They may also have a wider application to
neurodegenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The research was led by Professor Robert MacLaren at the
University of Oxford's Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and funded in the
UK primarily by Fight for Sight, with additional support from the Wellcome
Trust, the Health Foundation, the Medical Research Council, the Royal College
of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Oxford Stem Cell Institute and the NIHR
Ophthalmology (Moorfields) Centre.