StemCell Therapy

As explained in the journal Nature, in a healthy retina, photoreceptors detect light and send electrical signals to the retinal ganglion cells (RGC), which then transmit the signal to the brain. The optogenetic therapy used completely bypasses damaged photoreceptor cells by using a virus to deliver light-sensitive bacterial proteins into the RGCs, allowing them to detect images directly bypassing the photoreceptors.

In the case study, the researchers injected the virus into the eye of a man with retinitis pigmentosa and waited four months for protein production by retinal ganglion cells to stabilize. The researchers then designed a prototype of glasses that capture visual information and optimize it for detection by bacterial proteins. The trial participant had to train with the glasses for several months before his brain adapted to interpret the points correctly. Finally, he was able to make out high-contrast images, including objects on a table and the white stripes on a crosswalk. When the researchers recorded your brain activity, they found that your visual cortex reacted to the image in the same way it would if you had normal eyesight. Of course, because the retina contains around a hundred times more photoreceptors than RGCs, the resolution of the images detected by RGCs will never be as good as natural vision.

Although the trial has been completed in just one person, six others have been injected with the same light-sensitive proteins, but the pandemic has delayed their training and the researchers hope to have results soon. We will have to wait to find out if these results are replicable, since the results cannot be generalized since it is a single person. This is a high-quality study, which is carried out and controlled with great care, James Bainbridge, professor of retinal studies at Global University in London, told the Science Media Center, who was not involved in the study. . The problem is that the findings are based on laboratory tests performed on a single person, so more work will be needed to find out if this technology is really useful. The press release describes improved recognition of the objects, but there is no evidence in the study results, He clarifies.

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A blind man partially recovers his vision thanks to optogenetic therapy Explica .co - Explica

This entry was posted on May 27, 2021 at 1:51 am and is filed under Eye Sight & Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |