StemCell Therapy

The treatment is aimed at one of the most common causes of blindness in boys and young men

SCIENTISTS seeking a cure for blindness are testing a groundbreaking gene therapy on British patients.

The clinical trial aims to find a treatment for one of the most common causes of blindness in boys and young men.

Alamy

X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, allows the retinal cells to gradually stop working and eventually die, which prevents the eyes from processing light. There is currently no treatment available for sufferers. The trial, which could feature up to 30 patients, follows success by an Oxford

University team in treating those with another form of hereditary blindness, known as choroideremia.

Last Thursday a 29-year-old man with XLRP became the first patient to undergo the gene therapy procedure at Oxford Eye Hospital.

A virus carries corrective DNA into cells at the back of the eye.

For the treatment to work scientists have to reprogramme a gene called RPGR to make it more stable. The instability of that gene in the retina has previously been a major obstacle to finding a way of tackling the condition.

Prof Robert MacLaren, of Oxford University, said: We have spent many years working out how to develop this gene therapy.

Changing the genetic code is always undertaken with great caution, but the new sequence we are using has proven to be highly effective in our laboratory studies.

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Brit scientists testing 'groundbreaking' therapy that could cure common cause of blindness - The Sun

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