Gene therapy of retinitis pigmentosa: the first patient

Genetic engineering has made it possible to cure hereditary blindness

Ilya Vedmedenko, Naked Science

Thanks to genetic engineering, doctors were able to restore vision to a 29-year-old patient suffering from a hereditary disease. The experience gained opens the way for the treatment of thousands of patients all over the Earth.

The 29-year-old Briton went blind due to retinitis pigmentosa. This is a hereditary degenerative eye disease that causes significant visual impairment, and often leads to blindness altogether. Sometimes symptoms appear in childhood, and in some cases they become noticeable already in adulthood. Currently, there are no effective drugs for retinitis pigmentosa. However, scientists from the University of Oxford were able to restore the patient's vision for the first time thanks to innovative gene therapy. The results are presented in The Telegraph.

First, genetic material was taken from the man, and then scientists reprogrammed the gene that had undergone mutation. After that, the corrected DNA was injected into the eye using a virus that does not pose a danger to humans. According to the lead author of the study, Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at Oxford University, the Briton who suffered from the disease is already at home. He feels satisfactory. Meanwhile, it will take several more years of observation in order to verify the effectiveness of therapy (the disease may manifest itself again). It is also known that in the foreseeable future this technique will be tested on 24 more patients.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  20.03.2017