May 24, 2021

expert reaction to a case study looking at a blind patient diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa being treated with a novel optogenetic treatment

A case study published in Nature Medicine follows the partial recovery of visual function in a blind patient after optogenetic therapy.

Prof Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Oxford, said:

“Retinitis pigmentosa is one of the most common causes of blindness in young people and results from the loss of the light-sensing photoreceptor cells in the retina at the back of the eye. In this trial the researchers used gene therapy to reprogram other cells in the retina to make them light sensitive and thereby restore some degree of vision. This is a significant milestone and undoubtedly further refinements will make optogenetic therapy a viable option for many patients in future.”

Prof James Bainbridge, Professor of Retinal Studies, UCL, said:

“This exciting new technology might help people whose eyesight is very severely impaired.

“It is a high quality study. It is carefully conducted and controlled. The findings are based on laboratory tests in just one individual. Further work will be needed to find out if the technology can be expected to provide useful vision.

“The intervention appeared to improve the ability to locate an object by sight. The press release describes improved recognition but there is no evidence of this in the results of the paper.”

‘Partial recovery of visual function in a blind patient after optogenetic therapy’ by José-Alain Sahe et al was published in Nature Medicine at 16:00 UK time on Monday 24^th May.

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

Prof Robert MacLaren: “is a scientific advisor to NICE on retinal gene therapy, but has no other relevant conflicts of interest.”

None received.