Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

 

France 24Air pollution linked to higher risk of irreversible sight loss

(26 January 2021)

Air pollution is likely to increase the risk of irreversible sight loss, according to the results of a long-term study published Tuesday.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness among over-50s in richer nations, with roughly 300 million people predicted to be affected by 2040.

[...] After accounting for other influencing factors including underlying health conditions and lifestyle, fine particulate matter exposure was associated with an eight-percent higher risk of an individual contracting AMD.

"Overall, our findings suggest that ambient air pollution, especially fine (particulate matter) or those of combustion-related particles, may affect AMD risk," said the study authors.

"Our findings add to the growing evidence of the damaging effects of ambient air pollution, even in the setting of relative low exposure."

[...] "The association of macular degeneration with smoking is well recognised, but this new finding of an environmental link related to atmospheric pollution will add further to the climate change debate," said Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianAir pollution linked to higher risk of irreversible sight loss

(26 January 2021)

Small increases in air pollution are linked to an increased risk of irreversible sight loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a large UK study has found.

[...] AMD is the leading cause of irreversible blindness among the over-50s in high-income countries and there are 200 million people around the world with the condition. In the UK about 5% of people over 65 years old have the disease.

The biggest risk factors for AMD are genetics and poor physical health issues, such as smoking and obesity. But as lifestyles become healthier, the impact of air pollution will become more important, the researchers said, and, unlike genetics, levels dirty air can be reduced with the right policies.

[...] The researchers found that people exposed to an additional 1 microgram per cubic metre of tiny particles had an 8% higher risk of AMD. The average level of tiny particles in the UK is 10µg/m3, which is relatively low compared with many other countries. The researchers took account of other factors that might influence the development of AMD, including age, smoking, weight and deprivation.

[...] Prof Robert MacLaren, at the University of Oxford, said: “This finding is significant. Furthermore, the study had an average age of around 60 and this small increased risk of 8% is likely to be compounded further over ensuing decades.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailLiving in an area with high levels of air pollution can increase your risk of developing macular degeneration and going BLIND, study warns

(25 January 2021)

Your risk of developing macular degeneration and going blind is increased by living in an area with a high level of air pollution, a study has warned.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive form of vision loss that is the leading cause of blindness among UK adults aged 50 and over.

[...] The study used estimates of the average annual levels of air pollution at each subject's home address, considering pollutants such as fine particles (or PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen oxides which mainly come from vehicle exhausts.

[...] Once factors such as lifestyle and underlying health conditions were taken into account, the team found that participants exposed to higher concentrations of PM2.5 were 8 per cent more likely to develop AMD.

[...] 'Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of sight loss in the developed world and so this finding is significant,' added Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmology expert from the University of Oxford.

'Participants in the study had an average age of around 60 and this small increase risk of 8 per cent is likely to be compounded further over ensuing decades.'

[link to full text]

 

The Irish NewsCan the coronavirus really affect sufferers’ eyes, as Dominic Cummings claimed?

(4 June 2020) 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings last week claimed he had travelled with his family to Barnard Castle in County Durham "to see if I could drive safely". His explanation was that he had thought his vision might have been affected by coronavirus.

Eye symptoms are recognised as a possible symptom of the disease – conjunctivitis, sticky eyes and red eyes have been reported in around a third of patients according to a small study in Wuhan, China, published in March.

Conjunctivitis is also included as a less common symptom in the World Health Organisation's official list. But could Covid-19 affect vision? Robert MacLaren, a professor of ophthalmology at Oxford University, says: "You would be expected to make a full recovery from the eye problems reported so far, although it may cause temporary difficulties such as blurred vision."

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsCoronavirus: Can it affect eyesight?

(26 May 2020)

Dominic Cummings has faced a media grilling over his decision during lockdown to drive his family 260 miles to his parent's property in Durham.

While he was defending his actions, it emerged the family also took a 30-minute car trip to the town of Barnard Castle at the end of their 14-day quarantine for coronavirus symptoms.

They had not been sightseeing, he said.

It had been to test his eyesight, which had "been affected" by the virus, before the long drive home to London.

His boss, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, backed the claim, saying: "On the point about eyesight, I'm finding I have to wear spectacles for the first time in years… so I'm inclined to think that's very, very plausible".

[...] Prof Robert MacLaren, an eye expert at the University of Oxford, said a recent study in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak began, reported a range of eye problems, including swelling and sticky eye.

"Any of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision," he said.

[link to full text]

 

ITVDoes coronavirus affect eyesight?

(26 May 2020)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his own eyesight was affected by coronavirus, after his top aide said he had gone on a drive to test his vision after recovering from Covid-19.

[...] In a joint statement, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the College of Optometrists said: "It is recognised that any upper respiratory tract infection may result in viral conjunctivitis as a secondary complication, and this is also the case with Covid-19."

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said coronavirus can affect the eyes in several ways.

"It was reported in approximately one third of patients in Wuhan (China) in a recent study."

He said: "The ocular manifestations in the Wuhan patients included conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia (red eye), chemosis (eye swelling), epiphora (watery eye) and increased secretions (sticky eye)."

"Any of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision."

[link to full text]

 

Sky News (large)Coronavirus: Does COVID-19 really impact your eyesight - and if so, how?

(26 May 2020)

We know about fevers, persistent coughs and losing your sense of taste, but eyesight has until now not been a major consideration for those who may have contracted coronavirus.

[...] The Royal College of Ophthalmologists has said one of its scientific papers found a few reported cases of viral conjunctivitis among coronavirus patients, but a "lack of evidence" meant it was "unable to report on the association of vision impairment, as a result of a patient contracting COVID-19".

Moorfields Eye Hospital backed this view, saying it could confirm no link between COVID-19 and impaired eyesight.

But professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, Professor Robert MacLaren, said he was confident some people with coronavirus would suffer some eyesight problems.

He pointed to one study of 38 coronavirus patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan - where the virus originated from.

Twelve patients showed symptoms of conjunctivitis, including eyes that were red, swelling, watery and sticky.

[...] Professor MacLaren acknowledged the findings were incidental and not clinically significant.

He added that more studies would be needed to determine if there was any sustained visual impairment after coronavirus recovery.

[link to full text]

 

The Irish NewsLack of conclusive evidence to link Covid-19 and eyesight problems, experts say

(26 May 2020)

There is little evidence to link Covid-19 to eyesight problems, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and Moorfields Eye Hospital have said.

[...] Moorfields Eye Hospital said on Tuesday that there is little evidence at the moment of a link and that more data is needed.

[...] The Royal College of Ophthalmologists also said it was unable to report on the link "due to a lack of evidence".

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said coronavirus can affect the eyes in several ways.

"It was reported in approximately one third of patients in Wuhan (China) in a recent study.

"The ocular manifestations in the Wuhan patients included conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia (red eye), chemosis (eye swelling), epiphora (watery eye) and increased secretions (sticky eye).

"Any of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision."

[link to full text]

 

TDTCoronavirus can cause eye problems in some patients, says Royal College

(26 May 2020)

Eye problems have been detected in coronavirus patients and should be recorded in order to better understand the connection, leading doctors have said.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists revealed that it was aware of a handful of cases of viral conjunctivitis in people with Covid-19.

[...] Although British experts are aware of only a small number of cases in the UK, a Chinese study found that the virus affected the eyes of approximately one third of patients.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Moorfields NHS Eye Hospital in London, one of the UK's leading centres, called for better data collection of coronavirus-related eye conditions.

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said: "Coronavirus can affect the eyes in several ways.

"It was reported in approximately one third of patients in Wuhan [the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak] in a recent study. The ocular manifestations in the Wuhan patients included conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia [red eye], chemosis [eye swelling], epiphora [watery eye] and increased secretions [sticky eye].

"Any of the above symptoms may affect vision, and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision."

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianCan coronavirus affect eyesight? Evidence is lacking, say experts

(26 May 2020)

Speaking to the press on Monday, Dominic Cummings said he drove, with his wife and child, on a 30-mile trip to Barnard Castle during lockdown to see if he could drive safely, concerned that his eyesight might have been affected by coronavirus.

In a press conference later the same day, Boris Johnson also claimed to have experienced problems with his eyesight following Covid-19, brandishing a pair of glasses and saying: “I’m finding that I have to wear spectacles for the first time in years … I think that’s very, very plausible that eyesight can be a problem associated with coronavirus.”

Eye problems are not on the UK’s list of coronavirus symptoms. At present, only a high temperature, new continuous cough, and loss of taste or smell are considered common signs of the disease.

A spokesperson for Moorfields eye hospital, in London, said there was, at present, very little evidence to suggest Covid-19 could affect eyesight.

“Cases where Covid-19 is recorded alongside an impact on eyesight are rare, so we cannot establish a direct causal effect,” the spokesperson said.

[...] Robert MacLaren, the professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said reports from Wuhan suggested a link between Covid-19 and conjunctivitis, as well as conjunctival hyperemia (red eye), chemosis (eye swelling), epiphora (watery eye) and increased secretions (sticky eye). MacLaren noted such symptoms could affect vision.

[link to full text]

 

The IndependentCoronavirus symptoms: Does Covid-19 affect eyesight as Dominic Cummings described?

(26 May 2020)

Medical experts have said there is currently “very little evidence” to suggest Covid-19 impacts eyesight following claims from both the prime minister and his adviser that they believed their vision may have been affected by the coronavirus.

[...] The government’s list of Covid-19 symptoms to watch out for does not currently mention eyesight - instead focussing on a high temperature, a sustained dry cough and a loss of taste or smell.

However, while relative caution remains over the lack of available evidence to suggest an impact on vision, Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, says one study has suggested the virus could affect the eyes in several ways.

"It was reported in approximately one third of patients in Wuhan in a recent study.

"The ocular manifestations in the Wuhan patients included conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia (red eye), chemosis (eye swelling), epiphora (watery eye) and increased secretions (sticky eye).

"Any of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision."

[link to full text

 

Daily MailExperts say there is ‘very little evidence’ to link Covid-19 to eyesight problems and more data is needed to establish a link

(26 May 2020)

There is 'very little evidence' to link Covid-19 to eyesight problems and more data is needed to establish a connection, experts have said.

[...] The Royal College of Ophthalmologists also said it was unable to report on the association of vision impairment 'due to a lack of evidence'.

'A direct causal effect can only be established through the reporting of proven cases of Covid-19 patients and their symptoms,' a statement added.

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said coronavirus can affect the eyes in several ways.

'It was reported in approximately one third of patients in Wuhan (China) in a recent study.

'The ocular manifestations in the Wuhan patients included conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia (red eye), chemosis (eye swelling), epiphora (watery eye) and increased secretions (sticky eye).

'Any of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision.'

[link to full text]

 

Daily ExpressShould Dominic Cummings have been driving with vision problems?

(26 May 2020)

If Dominic Cummings had problems with his vision, which impacted him at a "dangerous" level, he should not have been driving in the first place, according to AA guidelines.

[...] After Mr Cummings mentioned problems with his vision, he was backed up by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who told yesterday's coronavirus briefing he too had suffered problems with his vision after contracting coronavirus.

[...] However, Moorfields Eye Hospital said on Tuesday there was little evidence at the moment of a link.

[...] However, Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, suggested Mr Cummings had a point.

He said: "It was reported in approximately one-third of patients in Wuhan in a recent study.

"The ocular manifestations in the Wuhan patients included conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia (red eye), chemosis (eye swelling), epiphora (watery eye) and increased secretions (sticky eye).

"Any of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision."

[link to full text]

 

METRO‘Not enough evidence’ to prove coronavirus affects eyesight

(26 May 2020)

Scientists have said there is not enough evidence to directly link coronavirus with eyesight problems.

[...] But today Moorfields Eye Hospital said there is little evidence at the moment of a link and that more data is needed. In a statement, it said: ‘At present, there is very little evidence to suggest that Covid-19 can affect eyesight.

‘Cases where Covid-19 is recorded alongside an impact on eyesight are rare, so we cannot establish a direct causal effect. We need more data to be collected on Covid-19-related eye conditions to see if there is an association.’

[...] Professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford Robert MacLaren said coronavirus can affect the eyes in several ways.

He said a recent study showed approximately one third of patients in Wuhan, China, experienced issues including conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia (red eye), chemosis (eye swelling), epiphora (watery eye) and increased secretions (sticky eye).

Professor MacLaren added: ‘Any of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision.’

[link to full text]

 

Science Translational Medicine mastheadHope on the horizon for inherited blindness

(18 March 2018)

X-linked retinitis pigmentosa due to mutations in the RPGR gene is a common and severe cause of genetic vision impairment, ultimately leaving young males legally blind. The disease results in the degeneration of rod and cone photoreceptors leading to progressively constricting visual fields until only a small island of vision remains. RPGR-associated retinitis pigmentosa is an unmet medical need without any specific therapy.

[...] In the current Phase 1/2 dose-escalation study, 18 patients were injected into one eye and followed up to six months. The primary aim was to test safety in patients with advanced RPGR-retinitis pigmentosa. Preliminary efficacy was also assayed using microperimetry, a form of visual field testing that allows measuring of retinal sensitivity in injected and noninjected areas. Overall, the treatment was well tolerated, with only one patient experiencing transient regression of retinal function. Retinal sensitivity did not improve in patients injected with low vector dose, but enlargement of the visually sensitive area was seen in seven out of 12 patients in the mid- and high-dose cohorts. These patients subjectively confirmed that the intervention improved their ability to see.

These results are still preliminary, and continued assessment is necessary to precisely determine visual outcome. It is not entirely clear what benefit gene therapy will ultimately bring to the patients—will it slow the progression of the disease or will it actually improve vision long term? This is a critical question that must be taken into consideration before designing subsequent clinical trials, as the outcome measures would be different depending on the answer. Nevertheless, early data suggests that gene therapy can open up the small window through which patients perceive the outside world. Treating ophthalmologists can finally tell these patients—“there is hope on the horizon in your case.”

[link to full text]

 

NatureGene therapy shows promise for a disease that steals young men’s vision

(28 February 2020)

Men with an aggressive genetic disease that leads to blindness regained some of their lost vision after receiving doses of a corrective gene.

The X-linked form of a genetic disorder called retinitis pigmentosa affects young men with a defective gene on their single X chromosome. As their eye cells gradually die, affected men experience night blindness and tunnel vision, and many are permanently blind by their thirties.

To test the safety of a gene therapy for the disease, Robert MacLaren at the University of Oxford, UK, and his colleagues recruited 18 men whose vision had been damaged by the condition. The men received varying doses of a virus carrying a replacement for the defective gene.

Participants experienced no serious side effects, although some of the men who received the highest doses of the virus developed mild retinal inflammation. Peripheral vision improved in six men; this benefit lasted throughout the six-month trial. One man’s retina thickened, which the authors say might be evidence that light-receiving structures were re-growing.

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsGene therapy to halt rare form of sight loss

(17 February 2020)

A new gene therapy has been used to treat patients with a rare inherited eye disorder which causes blindness.

It's hoped the NHS treatment will halt sight loss and even improve vision.

Matthew Wood, 48, one of the first patients to receive the injection, told the BBC: "I value the remaining sight I have so if I can hold on to that it would be a big thing for me."

The treatment costs around £600,000 but NHS England has agreed a discounted price with the manufacturer Novartis.

Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec), has been approved by The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which estimates that just under 90 people in England will be eligible for the treatment.

[...] Mr Wood, from London, had his right eye treated during an hour-long operation at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

His left eye will be injected in a few weeks. The surgery was carried out by Prof Robert MacLaren, who has pioneered research into gene therapies for preventing blindness.

He told the BBC: "This is very exciting - this is the first approved NHS gene therapy for an eye disease, but there are opportunities to use gene therapy to treat other diseases in future, not only in the eye."

[link to full text]

 

Financial TimesGene therapy offers new vision to battle blindness

(9 December 2019)

When Tim Wray was a student he noticed he was having difficulty seeing in the dark. Aware that his grandfather had gone blind in his fifties due to a genetic eye disease, he went to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London to have his vision investigated.

The diagnosis was choroideremia, an inherited condition caused by a missing protein that allows waste products to build up and eventually damage or kill retinal cells. The effect is to cause tunnel vision, which gets progressively narrower until all sight disappears.

“I was told that research in gene therapy might lead to treatments in 10 years,” Mr Wray says. A decade later, in 2016, he became one of the first to receive a pioneering operation that involves lifting the retina from the back of the eye and injecting a tiny amount of genetic material under it.

[...] Robert MacLaren, who performed the surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, says: “The aim is to protect the cells in their current form, thereby stopping or slowing eyesight deterioration.”

[...] The treatment is still at the trial stage, but Prof MacLaren hopes it will receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration within two years. He is currently “pushing the boundaries of what you can do with microsurgery” by using smaller needles and more delicate procedures.

[link to full text]

 

Sky News (large)New gene therapy on the NHS will save the sight of kids threatened with blindness

(4 September 2019)

A revolutionary new gene therapy treatment that can save the eyesight of children who would otherwise go blind is soon to be available on the NHS.

About 250 adults and 150 babies born with inherited retinal dystrophies are registered in the UK each year. They have poor sight from birth which swiftly deteriorates, with most losing their vision completely in childhood.

Now, the life-changing therapy voretigene neparvovec will be available in the UK from 2020.

The therapy normally costs £613,410 per patient but is being bought at an undisclosed reduced price from manufacturer Novartis.

It is the first in a new generation of gene therapies that can be directly administered, in this case through an injection.

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and consultant ophthalmologist at the Oxford Eye Hospital, said: "The progression of inherited retinal degeneration caused by RPE65 gene mutations leads to blindness, which has a profound effect on the lives of affected patients and their carers.

"As a clinician, I believe the true value of voretigene neparvovec is its potential to improve vision in children and adults, and enabling them to participate fully at school, work and in their private lives."

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailBlind children battling rare condition to have their sight restored on the NHS by a revolutionary gene therapy that costs £300,000 per eye

(4 September 2019)

Blind children will have their sight restored on the NHS by revolutionary gene therapy that costs £300,000 per eye.

Until now babies born with retinal dystrophies disorder, a genetic condition that robs them of their vision through childhood, have had no treatment options.

But from January they will benefit from a 'miracle cure for blindness' that is delivered in a single jab directly to the eye.

The NHS will offer Luxturna, a life-changing gene therapy drug, to around 100 children and adults with a specific type of gene mutation. It will enable many to see their families properly for the first time.

[...] Luxturna, the brand name for voretigene neparvovec, only treats patients with a specific mutation in their RPE65 gene, which affects around five newborns a year in the UK.

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Oxford Eye Hospital, said: 'The progression of inherited retinal degeneration caused by RPE65 gene mutations leads to blindness, which has a profound effect on the lives of affected patients and their carers.

'As a clinician, I believe the true value of voretigene neparvovec is its potential to improve vision in children and adults, and enabling them to participate fully at school, work and in their private lives.'

[link to full text]

 

The SunMIRACLE GENE JAB: Blind babies to have eyesight restored by revolutionary £613,000 gene therapy available on the NHS

(4 September 2019)

BLIND children will have their eyesight restored by a revolutionary new gene therapy on the health service.

The life-changing treatment — usually £613,410 a patient but supplied at an undisclosed, reduced price — will be available for everyone from 2020, the NHS says.

[...] Babies born with inherited retinal dystrophies disorder have poor sight which swiftly deteriorates. Most lose their vision completely in childhood.

The condition blocks messages for making proteins in the eye that are essential for normal vision. But the therapy — voretigene neparvovec — recreates those processes.

It is the first in a new generation of gene therapies that can be directly administered to patients — such as via injection.

[...] Eye expert Professor Robert MacLaren said: "The progression of inherited retinal degeneration caused by RPE65 gene mutations leads to blindness, which has a profound effect on the lives of affected patients and their carers."

He hailed the therapy's "potential to improve vision in children and adults, and enabling them to participate fully at school, work and in their private lives”.

[link to full text]

 

BBC News

Boris Johnson: First speech as PM in full

(24 July 2019)

In Boris Johnson's first speech in Downing Street after becoming the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, he pays tribute to the first-in-human gene therapy trial for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), led by Professor Robert MacLaren: "It is here in Britain that we are using gene therapy, for the first time, to treat the most common form of blindness." [The reference is located at 8 minutes 46 seconds from the start of the recording.]

[link to video]

 

New Scientist (large)Gene therapy for common cause of sight loss tested for first time

(20 February 2019)

A WOMAN has become the first person to receive gene therapy for one of the most common causes of sight loss.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) involves the deterioration of cells in the eye’s retina. Robert MacLaren at the University of Oxford and his team have been developing gene therapy to halt this, and preserve what remains of a person’s vision.

The therapy is delivered in an engineered virus, which is injected under the retina. Last month, Janet Osborne, who has AMD, became the first person to receive this treatment as part of a safety trial. Her vision will be monitored regularly in coming months to gauge the operation’s success.

“A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve the vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough,” says MacLaren.

[link to full text]

 

BBC Radio 4

In Touch: Gene therapy aims to halt AMD

(19 February 2019)

Peter White talks to Cathy Yelf, the chief executive of the Macular Society, about the first treatment to target the underlying genetic cause of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). [The interview clip is located at 35 seconds from the start of the recording.]

[link to audio]

 

The West AustralianBlindness cure is within our sights with pioneering gene therapy

(19 February 2019)

Surgeons are hoping to halt the most common cause of blindness with a pioneering injection of gene therapy.

A British woman is the first to have the treatment, which may only need one jab to be effective.

The team from Oxford University has spent the past 12 years experimenting with gene therapies to slow or stop the progress of eye conditions.

Until now most of the treatments were for relatively rare problems, such as choroideremia and retinitis pigmentosa.

Now the jab will try to stop age-related macular degeneration, AMD, which is the most common cause of blindness.

[...] Project leader Professor Robert MacLaren, whose trial is funded by gene therapy company Gyroscope Therapeutics, said: “AMD is the number one cause of untreatable blindness in the developed world.

“A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve the vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough and certainly something I hope to see in the near future. “

We’re harnessing the power of the virus, a naturally occurring organism, to deliver the DNA into the patient’s cells.”

[link to full text]

 

ITVUK surgeons hail ‘world first’ op to tackle leading cause of sight loss

(18 February 2019)

Surgeons have claimed a world first after carrying out a gene therapy operation to tackle the most common cause of sight loss in the UK.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes the deterioration of cells in the macular, the central part of the retina, and affects more than 600,000 people in the UK.

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who carried out the procedure, said: “AMD is the number one cause of untreatable blindness in the developed world.

“A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve the vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough and certainly something I hope to see in the near future.

“We’re harnessing the power of the virus, a naturally occurring organism, to deliver the DNA into the patient’s cells.

“When the virus opens up inside the retinal cell it releases the DNA of the gene we have cloned, and the cell starts making a protein that we think can modify the disease, correcting the imbalance of the inflammation caused by the complement system.

“The idea of this gene therapy is to ‘deactivate’ the complement system, but at a very specific point at the back of the eye, so the patient would otherwise be unaffected by it, and we hope that in future it will slow down the progression of macular degeneration.”

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsGene therapy first to ‘halt’ most common cause of blindness

(18 February 2019)

A woman from Oxford has become the first person in the world to have gene therapy to try to halt the most common form of blindness in the Western world.

Surgeons injected a synthetic gene into the back of Janet Osborne's eye in a bid to prevent more cells from dying.

It is the first treatment to target the underlying genetic cause of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

About 600,000 people in the UK are affected by AMD, of whom 350,000 are severely sight impaired.

Janet Osborne told BBC News: "I find it difficult to recognise faces with my left eye because my central vision is blurred - and if this treatment could stop that getting worse, it would be amazing."

The treatment was carried out under local anaesthetic last month at Oxford Eye Hospital by Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.

He told BBC News: "A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough in ophthalmology and certainly something I hope to see in the near future."

[link to full text]

 

The Irish NewsUK surgeons hail ‘world first’ op to tackle leading cause of sight loss

(18 February 2019)

Surgeons have claimed a world first after carrying out a gene therapy operation to tackle the most common cause of sight loss in the UK.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes the deterioration of cells in the macular, the central part of the retina, and affects more than 600,000 people in the UK.

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who carried out the procedure, said: “AMD is the number one cause of untreatable blindness in the developed world.

“A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve the vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough and certainly something I hope to see in the near future.

“We’re harnessing the power of the virus, a naturally occurring organism, to deliver the DNA into the patient’s cells.

“When the virus opens up inside the retinal cell it releases the DNA of the gene we have cloned, and the cell starts making a protein that we think can modify the disease, correcting the imbalance of the inflammation caused by the complement system.

“The idea of this gene therapy is to ‘deactivate’ the complement system, but at a very specific point at the back of the eye, so the patient would otherwise be unaffected by it, and we hope that in future it will slow down the progression of macular degeneration.”

[link to full text]

 

TDTBritish woman is first in the world to undergo gene therapy for most common form of blindness

(18 February 2019)

A British woman has become the first person in the world to undergo gene therapy for the most common cause of sight loss.

Surgeons at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford inserted a synthetic gene into the left eye of Janet Osborne, 80, who suffers from age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Around 600,000 people in the UK are affected by AMD,  which affects the central part of a patient’s vision with gaps or ‘smudges’, making everyday activities like reading and recognising faces difficult.

[...] Ideally if successful, gene therapy would only need to be performed once, as the effects are thought to be long-lasting. The procedure was carried out at the John Radcliffe Hospital by Prof Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.

“AMD is the number one cause of untreatable blindness in the developed world,” said Prof MacLaren.

“A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve the vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough and certainly something I hope to see in the near future.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailIs a cure for blindness in sight? Scientists launch first attempt to halt most common cause of age-related blindness with gene therapy

(18 February 2019)

Surgeons have attempted for the first time to halt a common form of blindness with a single injection of gene therapy.

A team from Oxford University has for the last 12 years been experimenting with gene therapies to slow or halt the progress of different eye conditions.

But until now most of the treatments they have carried out have been for relatively rare problems, such as choroideremia, which affects 1,200 people in Britain, and retinitis pigmentosa, which affects 16,000.

Now the surgeons have launched their first attempt at halting age-related macular degeneration - known as AMD - which is the most common cause of blindness and affects 600,000 people in the UK. 

[...] Project leader Professor Robert MacLaren, whose trial is funded by gene therapy company Gyroscope Therapeutics, said: ‘AMD is the number one cause of untreatable blindness in the developed world.

‘A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve the vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough and certainly something I hope to see in the near future.’

[link to full text]


Evening StandardSurgeons carry out ‘world first’ gene therapy to tackle leading cause of sight loss in Britain

(18 February 2019)

Surgeons have carried out a world-first gene therapy operation to tackle the most common cause of sight loss in the UK.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes the deterioration of cells in the macular, the central part of the retina, and affects more than 600,000 people in the UK.

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who carried out the procedure, said: "AMD is the number one cause of untreatable blindness in the developed world.

"A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve the vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough and certainly something I hope to see in the near future.

"We're harnessing the power of the virus, a naturally occurring organism, to deliver the DNA into the patient's cells.

"When the virus opens up inside the retinal cell it releases the DNA of the gene we have cloned, and the cell starts making a protein that we think can modify the disease, correcting the imbalance of the inflammation caused by the complement system.

"The idea of this gene therapy is to 'deactivate' the complement system, but at a very specific point at the back of the eye, so the patient would otherwise be unaffected by it, and we hope that in future it will slow down the progression of macular degeneration."

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianThey said I'd go blind. Now gene therapy has changed that

(19 January 2019)

In his office in Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital, Prof Robert MacLaren sits upright, his back as straight as a soldier’s, and tells me about the lowest point in his 20-year career. It was the rejection, many years ago, of his grant application for a project investigating how gene therapy might treat conditions causing blindness. “It was completely panned by the reviewers,” he says. “We were told ‘There’s no way it’s ever going to happen – it’s a complete waste of time funding such a ridiculously stupid project’.”

In October last year, MacLaren successfully completed the world’s first gene therapy trial for one such condition, called choroideremia, as part of the largest late-stage trial ever for any genetic disease. It marks an extraordinary breakthrough in the quest of scientists and clinicians to understand why and how our own genes can make us ill, and the apparently miraculous possibility of rewriting our genetic code. But MacLaren is understated about this victory: “It’s really satisfying, when you’re given such a rebuttal, to then prove the reviewers wrong. I’d love to go back to them and say: Look what’s going on now.”

[...] Robert MacLaren pinpoints the origin of his fascination with the science of sight to his early experiences growing up in Angmering-on-Sea, a small seaside town in West Sussex, where his father was a photographer and his mother a nursing assistant in a care home for the blind. After his PhD, he served in the British army before training in ophthalmology. He now combines NHS clinical work with academia, researching the causes of blindness as a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailME & MY OPERATION: The gene op that could stop me from going blind

(19 November 2018) 

[...] Usually presenting in boys in late childhood, choroideremia causes permanent blindness. First night vision is lost, then peripheral vision. By age 40, sight is extremely poor. It affects one in 50,000.

This inherited disease is caused by a missing gene known as REP1 protein, which is crucial for the functioning of the cells that line the retina — the thin layer of tissue stimulated by light which is converted into brain signals, allowing us to see. The absence of REP1 means these cells gradually die.

But now there is some hope for serious eye conditions, including, potentially, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), although the treatment might take a slightly different form. For choroideremia, we use a single injection of billions of missing genes to reboot the retina cells.

It’s delicate surgery, in an area about 1mm square and can take two hours.

I make an incision through the white of the eye and use a needle to remove the jelly-like substance that gives the eyeball its shape, called the vitreous.

I then detach the retina by injecting fluid under it, using a needle thinner than a human hair. This slightly lifts the retina. It’s into this space that the genes will be injected. The missing REP1 gene is put into a virus solution. Purified so it is harmless, the virus works like a Trojan horse by infecting the retinal cells, and activating them with the REP1.

[...] One week after surgery, we expect sight to be as it was before the operation — and by the following week, it may have improved. We monitor the patient for two years and only then know if it has been a success. The gene therapy is designed to slow sight loss to the point where patients can live a normal life.

[link to full text]


BBC Radio 4In Touch: Choroideremia Breakthrough

(9 October 2018)

[...] Trials involving the injection of a virus containing a missing gene have been ongoing since 2011 at the Oxford Eye Hospital, and the newly published results show a significant gain in vision across the group of patients as a whole. We talk to Professor Robert MacLaren about his study, now led by Nightstar Therapeutics. And Joe Pepper, one of the patients, tells us how it transformed his life. [The interview clip is located at 9 minutes 58 seconds from the start of the recording.]

[link to audio]

 

The Irish NewsGene therapy leads to sight gain in patients going blind

(8 October 2018)

An experimental gene therapy treatment has improved the sight of patients with a rare blindness condition.

In a ground-breaking trial, the technique prevented vision loss in 12 out of 14 participants without complications.

A number of patients saw their vision improve and six gained the ability to identify more than five letters in eye tests.

Patients were monitored for up to five years.

During this time visual ability was maintained in only a quarter of untreated eyes.

All the participants suffered from choroideremia, an inherited condition than triggers progressive vision loss.

The disease, which mostly affects men, is caused by the gradual loss of light-sensitive retinal cells at the back of the eye.

Each patient in the trial had a harmless virus carrying a missing gene injected into the back of the eye.

Lead scientist Professor Robert MacLaren, from Oxford Eye Hospital, said: “The early results of vision improvement we saw have been sustained for as long as we have been following up these patients and in several the gene therapy injection was over five years ago.

“The trial has made a big difference to their lives.”

[link to full text]

 

TDTPioneering gene injection restores sight in patients

(8 October 2018)

A single injection which restores the sight of people with genetic blindness has been successfully tested for the first time.

Scientists have hailed the results of the world’s first gene therapy trial for blindness after 14 patients with one of the most common inherited forms of the disease experienced “significant” gains or arrested deterioration of their vision.

Oxford University researchers, working with the NHS, injected a virus containing a missing gene into the rear of the eyes of patients suffering from choroideremia.

Of the 12 who received the treatment without suffering any complications, all have demonstrated improved or maintained vision since having the injection, some as long as five years ago.

[...] Choroideremia is one form of a spectrum of inherited eye diseases known as retinis pigmentosa, which have become the most common cause of untreatable blindness in young people.

It affects approximately 1,200 people in the UK, however the scientists who led the trial have said their success could pave the way for the adoption of gene therapies for blindness more widely.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, the ophthalmologist who led the trial, said: “The early results of vision improvement we saw have been sustained for as long as we have been following up these patients and in several the gene therapy injection was over 5 years ago.

“The trial has made a big difference to their lives.”

[link to full text]

 

i NewsGene therapy leads to sight gain in patients going blind

(8 October 2018)

Patients with a rare blindness condition have been given hope their sight could be improved after experimental gene therapy treatment prevented vision loss in 12 out of 14 participants without complications.

The groundbreaking trial resulted in six patients gaining the ability to identify more than five letters in eye tests, while others also saw improvements to their vision.

Patients were monitored for up to five years, during which time visual ability was maintained in only a quarter of untreated eyes. All the participants suffered from choroideremia, an inherited condition than triggers progressive vision loss.

The disease, which mostly affects men, is caused by the gradual loss of light-sensitive retinal cells at the back of the eye. Each patient in the trial had a harmless virus carrying a missing gene injected into the back of the eye.

Lead scientist Professor Robert MacLaren, from Oxford Eye Hospital, said: “The early results of vision improvement we saw have been sustained for as long as we have been following up these patients and in several the gene therapy injection was over five years ago. The trial has made a big difference to their lives.”

 

Daily MailHow a gene breakthrough has saved Joe's sight - and, one day, the same technology could transform all our lives

(6 August 2018)

Whenever teacher Joe Pepper watches his students play cricket, he feels a rush he can only describe as ‘euphoric’.

For Joe — an avid cricket player since childhood — was diagnosed with the degenerative eye disease choroideremia when he was just ten years old.

The inherited condition causes progressive vision loss and mainly affects males. Within six years of diagnosis, Joe had to give up his beloved cricket, and by the time he was a teenager, he’d started turning down invitations as he was too nervous to leave the house.

[...] But thanks to a pioneering gene therapy technique, not only can Joe now see better than before, he also coaches pupils in cricket, football and rugby at the school where he teaches history. ‘Best of all, I know I won’t go blind,’ says Joe, 26, who lives in Croydon. ‘The technique has halted my sight loss.’

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmologist at the University of Oxford, led the first clinical trial for the gene therapy in 2011. ‘With gene therapy, we use the power of the virus to deliver DNA into sick cells — we can modify the DNA to match the missing gene so that when the virus infects the cells, it provides a “patch” to correct the defect,’ he says. ‘The cells can then return to normal function.’

[...] Professor MacLaren adds: ‘Gene therapy is potentially a single treatment that has lifelong effects in preventing disease progression. That is why it is so exciting. Can you imagine having high blood pressure, then taking one pill to permanently put it back to normal by altering genes?

‘That is why gene therapy is so much more powerful than anything else in medicine today.’

[link to full text]


Daily MirrorWorld's first trial of robotic eye surgery gives doctors 'much more precision' and helps remove tremors

(22 June 2018)

Six patients risked permanent blindness by undergoing eye operations in which surgeons were assisted by robots for the first time.

Experts who held the world trial in the UK this month called the breakthrough "a huge leap forward" after the robots helped steady the surgeons' movements.

The patients were allocated robot-assisted surgery while a further six had standard manual surgery in the test at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

But researchers said the surgeons were able to perform the delicate procedures with "equal or better efficacy" using the robotic machine.

"This is a huge leap forward for delicate and technically difficult surgery, which in time should significantly improve the quality and safety of this kind of operation.

"The trial also showed that the robot has great potential for extending the boundaries of what we can currently achieve," said Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.

[...] The researchers, based at the world-famous University of Oxford, plan to use the robot to deliver gene therapy to the retina.

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailRobots perform sight-saving eye operations BETTER than surgeons, reveals pioneering trial

(19 June 2018)

Robots perform sight-saving eye operations better than humans, new research suggests.

In a study of 12 patients suffering from distorted vision, a robotic procedure, known as PRECEYES Surgical System, successfully restored their sight without causing the bleeding side effects of traditional operations, a study found. 

According to researchers from the University of Oxford, PRECEYES avoids hand tremors that can seriously damage the eye's structure.

[...] The researchers analysed 12 people who required a membrane to be removed from their eyes to improve their vision.

Half of the participants underwent surgery performed by robots while the remainder had traditional procedures.

[...] All 12 surgeries were successful, however, the robotic procedures had a 'higher degree of stability and precision of movement', according to the researchers.

Although the robot surgery took longer 'speed was sacrificed in the interest of safety', they added.

[...] Professor MacLaren: 'Our next step will be to use the robotic surgical device for precise and minimally traumatic delivery of a gene therapy to the retina, which will be another first-in-man achievement and is set to commence in early 2019.'

[link to full text]

 

New Scientist (large)A robot has performed eye surgery on humans for the first time

(18 June 2018)

For the first time, a robot has performed eye surgery on humans. Its success hints that in the near future robots will be performing operations that are too delicate for a human to do manually.

Each of the six participants in the study needed a membrane removed from their retina to improve vision. This procedure involves cutting out a collection of cells that have clumped together, distorting what the person can see.

Twelve people in total had the surgery, with half of them conducted using a robot. The device is made by Eindhoven-based firm Preceye, and has a moveable arm directed using a joystick-style controller. It can be fitted with various different surgical instruments and filters out the imperceptible tremors from the surgeon’s hand.

[...] Those who had the robotic surgery appeared to experience less haemorrhaging overall, although the study was too small to fully rule out the possibility that this was a statistical fluke.

However, the aim of the study was not to improve on this particular type of surgery. Instead, it was a proof of concept for using the robot in far trickier surgeries, which are impossible for humans to perform manually.

“Using the robot, we might also be able to directly unblock blood vessels or possibly inject things into the optic nerve,” says MacLaren. Both of these would require such fine motor control that surgeons simply can’t do it.

[link to full text]

 

TDTThe top 8 robotic healthcare breakthroughs: from gene mapping to robot nurses

(2 November 2017)

[...] Last year, Prof Robert MacLaren successfully carried out the world’s first robotic operation inside the eye at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford.

He used a remotely controlled robot to lift a membrane 100th of a millimetre thick from the retina at the back of the right eye from Revd Dr William Beaver. He is the first patient ever to undergo this experimental procedure.

[link to full text]

 

The TimesGene therapy raises hopes of blindness cure

(3 October 2017)

A gene therapy has restored sight to mice whose vision had been wiped out by a common form of inherited blindness.

Scientists at the University of Oxford are planning to test their technique on humans after achieving what they say are the most promising results yet.

About 20,000 British families are thought to be affected by retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a cluster of genetic conditions that cause the light-capturing rods and cones at the back of the eye to die off. There is little that eye doctors can do once the disease reaches its final stages.

[...] The Oxford researchers have developed a new method for reaching around the back of the eyeball and squirting DNA below the retina.

They also used the gene for a human protein called melanopsin, which carries a much lower risk of being rejected by the immune system than the algae-derived proteins used in other gene therapies.

Findings published in the journal PNAS showed that loss of sight was reversed in mice for at least 13 months.

[link to full text]

 

The IndependentScientists cure blindness in mice with 'simple' genetic procedure

(2 October 2017)

The most common form of blindness in young people could be at least partially cured using gene therapy, a new study in mice suggests.

Researchers managed to restore sight to mice affected by retinitis pigmentosa after reprogramming their remaining retinal nerve cells.

These were not light-sensitive but were altered by the technique to give the mice a degree of vision.

[...] One of the researchers in the retinitis pigmentosa study, Dr Samantha de Silva, of Oxford University, expressed optimism about the implications of their work.

“There are many blind patients in our clinics and the ability to give them some sight back with a relatively simple genetic procedure is very exciting,” she said.

“Our next step will be to start a clinical trial to assess this in patients.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailBlindness breakthrough: Single gene injected into the back of the eye reverses one of most common types of sight loss

(2 October 2017)

Scientists have used gene therapy to reverse one of the most common causes of blindness.

A single gene injected into the back of the eye restores vision, by fixing a problem which stops the retina detecting light.

The breakthrough, in mice experiments, saw the animals' blindness cured so that they again responded to beams of light and could see objects placed in their cage. Crucially, the eye continued to make a vital protein which restores sight for 15 months after the initial injection.

Researchers at the University of Oxford says the gene therapy goes further than other work on retinitis pigmentosa, which affects more than 20,000 people in Britain.

Previous attempts focused on correcting the genetic mutations which cause blindness by killing off the cells we need to detect light.

However the new technique provides a single fix, by drafting in completely different cells to do their job. It could be available for patients in five to 10 years.

Samantha de Silva, the study's lead author from the Nuffield Laboratory of Opthalmology at the University of Oxford, said: 'There are many blind patients in our clinics and the ability to give them some sight back with a relatively simple genetic procedure is very exciting. Our next step will be to start a clinical trial to assess this in patients.'

[link to full text]

 

The Sun'HOLY GRAIL OF GENETICS' What is CRISPR-Cas9, how does gene editing work, who discovered the technique and could it mean we live longer?

(4 August 2017)

BREAKTHROUGHS in gene editing have paved the way for scientists to fix "faulty" DNA in humans, potentially wiping out inherited diseases for good.

[...] One of these techniques, named CRISPR-Cas9, is causing a buzz in the scientific world as it has proved to be a versatile and precise method of editing genes.

The new technique allows scientists to edit a genome by removing, replacing or adding to parts of the DNA sequence.

[...] If scientists are able to correct damaged DNA in children and adults, they may be able to extend lifespans and treat diseases related to ageing.

Professor Robert MacLaren, of Oxford University, said: “Researchers are now using this mechanism to correct gene defects.

“Clinical trials are a long way off because the CRISPR proteins may cut DNA at other sites that may have untoward effects.

“Nevertheless, since ageing is defined as picking up DNA mutations, the ability to correct these mutations may in future provide us with a means of extending our lifespan as well as treating many diseases that relate to ageing.”

[link to full text]

 

WiredThis sight-saving R2D2 robot wants to stick a tiny knife in your eye

(10 May 2017) 

Ophthalmologists come in all shapes and sizes. But this tiny Robotic Retinal Dissection Device (aptly named "R2D2"), is the smallest we've seen so far. What's more, it operates from inside a single hole in your eye, travelling back in and out to make incisions - even as the eye rotates.

Created by Preceyes BV, a Dutch medical robotics firm, the R2D2 robot debuted in 2016 at Oxford University's Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, when it was first used by Robert MacLaren to perform surgery on a patient. The robot was remotely controlled to lift a 0.01mm thick membrane from the retina at the back of the right eye of Reverend Dr William Beaver. After the operation, Beaver's membrane growth had been removed and his vision returned to normal. It was the first time the procedure had been used and was highly experimental – essentially guiding a small automated knife with nothing more than a joystick and touchscreen.

[...] After completing the first operation, Professor Robert MacLaren said: "There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future."

[...] With this in mind, the potential for small-scale operations, such as those performed by the R2D2, could be a natural partner for more radical treatment methods. Professor MacLaren claims the next phase in the R2D2's development will hopefully tackle a variety of eyesight issues.

"This will help to develop novel surgical treatments for blindness, such as gene therapy and stem cells, which need to be inserted under the retina with a high degree of precision."

[link to full text]

 

NBC NewsRobot Performs First-Ever Surgery Inside Human Eye

(9 May 2017)

In a medical first, surgeons have used a robot to operate inside the human eye, greatly improving the accuracy of a delicate surgery to remove fine membrane growth on the retina. Such growth distorts vision and, if left unchecked, can lead to blindness in the affected eye.

Currently, doctors perform this common eye surgery without robots. But given the delicate nature of the retina and the narrowness of the opening in which to operate, even highly skilled surgeons can cut too deeply and cause small amounts of hemorrhaging and scarring, potentially leading to other forms of visual impairment, according to the researchers who tested out the new robotic surgery in a small trial. The pulsing of blood through the surgeon's hands is enough to affect the accuracy of the cut, the researchers said.

In the trial, at a hospital in the United Kingdom, surgeons performed the membrane-removal surgery on 12 patients; six of those patients underwent the traditional procedure, and six underwent the new robotic technique. Those patients in the robot group experienced significantly fewer hemorrhages and less damage to the retina, the findings showed.

The technique is "a vision of eye surgery in the future," Dr. Robert E. MacLaren, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who led the study team and performed some of the surgeries, said in a statement. MacLaren presented the results Monday at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), happening this week in Baltimore.

[link to full text]

 

BBC World ServiceHereditary blindness cure tested

(20 March 2017)

A virus carrying corrective DNA into cells at the back of the eye is being tested to treat one of the most common forms of hereditary blindness in young men and boys. It targets XLRP (X-linked retinitis pigmentosa), which is progressive and currently incurable.

Professor Robert MacLaren of Oxford University is the leader of this first trial on patients in the UK and told Newsday how this gene therapy treatment works.

[link to audio]

 

TDTBlind British man in world’s first operation to deliver modified DNA to his eyes

(20 March 2017)

Thousands of people born with a faulty gene which makes them go blind have been offered new hope after a British man underwent the world’s first operation to deliver new DNA to his eyes and restore his sight.

Around 15,000 people in Britain suffer from x-linked retinitis pigmentosa, a deteriorating condition which brings a slow and irreversible loss of vision, and which is the leading cause of blindness in young people.

Loss of sight occurs because a gene responsible for maintaining the light sensitive cells at the back of the eye is missing half of its DNA code.

But scientists can now replace the code using a groundbreaking technique which reprogrammes the gene in the lab, then delivers the healthy DNA into the eye, via a harmless virus.

Last Thursday, a 29-year-old man became the first person in the world to undergo the procedure at Oxford Eye Hospital and is now recovering.

Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who is leading the trial said: "He is doing well and now at home, but we will have to wait a few years to know if it has stopped his retina from degenerating. 

“The effect of disease on families with retinitis pigmentosa is devastating and 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.”

[link to full text]

 

The SunBrit scientists testing ‘groundbreaking’ therapy that could cure common cause of blindness

(19 March 2017)

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.

X-linked retinitis pigmentosa [...] prevents the eye’s 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.”

[link to full text]

 

MIT Technology ReviewThe Tiny Robots Revolutionizing Eye Surgery

(17 January 2017) 

Last September, Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmologist and professor at Oxford University, plunged a tiny robotic arm into William Beaver’s eye. A membrane had recently contracted on the 70-year-old priest’s retina, pinching it into an uneven shape and causing him to see the world as if reflected in a hall of mirrors. 

Using a joystick and a camera feed, MacLaren guided the arm of the Robotic Retinal Dissection Device, or R2D2 for short, through a tiny incision in the eye, before lifting the wrinkled membrane, no more than a hundredth of a millimeter thick, from the retina, and reversing Beaver’s vision problems. 

It was the first operation performed inside the human eye using a robot. Since September, five more patients have undergone robot-assisted operations at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital in England, including one in which a virus, used in gene therapy to halt the effects of retinal degeneration, was planted on the retina itself, a procedure only made possible by R2D2’s unprecedented precision.

“My movements were improved and finessed by the robot,” MacLaren says. “I could even let go and the robot would hold everything securely in place.” 

[...] MacLaren believes that R2D2 and other robots like it will enable surgeons to, for the first time, operate underneath the retina and interact with blood vessels in the eye. “Undoubtedly this will lead to improvements in quality of eye surgery that require highly technical procedures,” he says. “But most significantly they will open the door to new operations for which the human hand does not have the necessary control and precision.”

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsInnovations that will change lives

(30 December 2016)

Here are some of the pioneering treatments that scientists developed this year.  [Note by University of Oxford: the relevant sequence commences 15 seconds from the start of the video.]

[link to video]

 

The EngineerRobot surgery is easy on the eye

(17 December 2016)

[...] The real-world R2-D2 is a series of trials being carried out by a surgical robot, the Preceyes surgical system (PSS). But unlike its fictional counterpart, this is no clamp-handed humanoid looming over an operating table. Instead, the PSS is a tool intended to assist human surgeons in difficult and arduous procedures. Surgical-assistance robots such as this are a relatively recent addition to the operating theatre, as they are very expensive and not yet in particularly widespread use, but in some fields of surgery they are becoming more accepted and better known.

[...] The reason for this is to improve the precision of the movements of the surgical instruments and to impart a stability that is impossible for a human to maintain throughout the course of an arduous and intricate surgical procedure.The PSS has been developed by Dutch company Preceyes, and is being tested and further developed for specific applications in the R2-D2 (an abbreviation for Robotic Retinal Dissection Device) trial, a long-term programme being carried out at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and in collaboration with Oxford University’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology. The trial, which consists of 12 operations, began this year with the first surgery taking place in September. The first phase of the trial, comprising six surgeries, is now complete. Phase two will begin in mid-2017.

[...] Phase one of the R2-D2 trial was mainly aimed at proving that PSS was safe to use in eye surgery and that it did assist the surgeon in carrying out his or her task. In phase two, MacLaren’s team will be injecting therapeutic agents (drugs in this case, not gene therapy) under patients’ retinas. “It’s a fairly simple procedure, and we are used to doing it, but it will pave the way for the more difficult gene therapy technique,” MacLaren said.

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianBreakthrough as gene-editing technique restores sight to blind animals

(16 November 2016)

Blind animals have had their vision partially restored using a revolutionary DNA editing technique that scientists say could in future be applied to a range of devastating genetic diseases.

[...] The latest study, published in the journal Nature, demonstrates that adult rats that had been engineered to have a genetic form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa could be treated using Crispr gene therapy.

The condition, which affects about one in 4,000 people, occurs when a faulty gene causes retinal cells to gradually die off, leading to blindness. The scientists targeted the retinal cells by injecting a virus, carrying a package of gene-editing instructions, into the eyes of blind three-week-old rats.

When the rats were eight weeks old, the animals were shown to respond to light - although their vision was not fully restored - and they passed several tests indicating healing in their retinal cells.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, who works on gene therapy at the University of Oxford and was not involved in the research, said: “Getting the DNA into cells that are not dividing is quite an advance. This has got huge potential.”

However, he said that the authors’ predicted timeline for clinical trials was “extremely optimistic”, suggesting that more extensive safety studies would be essential first. “The potential drawback is that you’ve got something that goes around in cells snipping DNA. Assuming that safety studies show Crispr doesn’t damage healthy DNA, I think we could see this in clinical trials within five years.”

[link to full text]

 

The IndependentDNA-editing breakthrough could fix 'broken genes' in the brain, delay ageing and cure incurable diseases

(16 November 2016)

Scientists have discovered a new way to edit DNA that could fix “broken genes” in the brain, cure previously incurable diseases and potentially even extend the human lifespan.

The breakthrough – described as a “holy grail” of genetics – was used to partially restore the sight of rats blinded by a condition which also affects humans.

[...] The researchers used the technique on rats born with a genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which affects about one in 4,000 people in the UK.

By altering the genes affecting the eyes, they were able to give the rats a degree of vision.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, of Oxford University, described the research as a “significant advance”.

“Researchers are now using this mechanism to correct gene defects. Clinical trials are a long way off because the CRISPR proteins may cut DNA at other sites that may have untoward effects,” he said.

“Nevertheless, since ageing is defined as picking up DNA mutations, the ability to correct these mutations may in future provide us with a means of extending our lifespan as well as treating many diseases that relate to ageing.”

[link to full text]

 

Financial Times

Eye surgery: lasers are with us, robots on their way

(12 October 2016)

[...] The first robotic operation inside the eye took place recently at the University of Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital. Once robotic surgery was not feasible at the microscopic level required but, in September, Oxford surgeons used a remotely controlled robot to lift a membrane 100th of a millimetre thick from the retina at the back of a patient’s right eye.

To counter the surgeon’s tremors, the operation took place through a hole less than 1mm in diameter. Dutch company Preceyes built the robot, the like of which may in the future help speed up cataract surgery and perform tasks that human hands cannot do, such as injecting drugs or stem cells into retinal veins, which are thinner than human hair.

[link to full text]

 

The OphthalmologistForging Iron Man

(1 October 2016)

The Ophthalmologist October 2016 Front Cover

 

It’s mid-afternoon on the last day of August. The Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, Robert MacLaren, looks both happy and relieved: the procedure is over. It was successful, and his patient is being wheeled out of Theatre 7 of the Oxford Eye Hospital.

He stands then steps away from the surgical microscope and within seconds, he’s surrounded by a phalanx of people in blue scrubs congratulating him. There’s laughter, handshakes and elation all round – today was a good day at the office. But only a few minutes beforehand nobody was speaking: the room was dimmed; the tension palpable. Why? Robert was in the process of making history. He was the first person in the world to perform robotic-assisted eye surgery (an ILM peel) on a live patient.

[...] The ILM peel was really only the proof-of-concept. What Robert MacLaren has in mind for the robot is the subretinal application of gene and stem cell therapy. To that end, he’s currently working with NightstaRx on developing a genetic treatment for choroideremia, and on embryonic stem cells for a number of retinal diseases. But practically, both approaches require the subretinal injection of fluids precisely and at a controlled rate into a tiny hole – in a diseased and possibly friable retina. This is getting beyond the abilities of the human hand: to do this safely and consistently, you need the precision of a robot – imagine trying to find and apply a second dose through the same hole by hand. Put it another way, the whole promise of gene and stem cell therapies for the future treatment of retinal degenerative disease appears to be linked to the development of robotic eye surgery.

[link to full text]   [link to journal]

 

The EngineerOxford surgeons perform world-first robotic eye surgery with R2D2

(12 September 2016)

Surgeons at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, have carried out the world’s first internal eye operation using a robot, remotely controlling the machine to lift a membrane 100th of a millimetre thick from a patient’s retina.

The Robotic Retinal Dissection Device (R2D2) is designed to mitigate against tiny tremors in surgeons’ hands, which can even be caused by their pulse. Built by Dutch medical robotics firm Preceyes BV, it has seven independent computer-controlled motors and acts like a mechanical hand. Using a joystick, a touchscreen and an operating microscope, the surgeon’s movements are converted into robotic manoeuvres as precise as 1000th of a millimetre.

In this instance, Professor of Ophthalmology Robert MacLaren entered the eye of Reverend Dr William Beaver via a hole less than 1mm in diameter. The 70-year-old priest had a membrane growing on his retina that was distorting his vision. At just 100th of a millimetre thick, this membrane had to be dissected off the retina without damaging it. The operation has so far been a success and Father Beaver’s vision is improving.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future,” said Professor MacLaren.

“Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on. With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed.”

[link to full text]

 

METRORobot’s just operated on someone’s eye for the first time ever

(11 September 2016)

Whether you like it or not, robots are becoming the future.

To the point where robots are now carrying out eye surgeries.

That’s right – Surgeons have successfully carried out the world’s first operation inside the eye using a robot system.

William Beaver, 70, had the procedure done at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

[...] Surgeons decided to use the robot system because the patient had a membrane growing on the surface of his retina, which had contracted and pulled it into an uneven shape.

The membrane is about 100th of a millimetre thick and needed to be dissected off the retina without damaging it.

They usually attempt this by slowing their pulse and timing movements between heart beats but the robots make the whole process easier.

On completing the operation, Professional Robert MacLaren said: ‘There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.

‘With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed.’

[...] Prof MacLaren added: ‘This will help to develop novel surgical treatments for blindness, such as gene therapy and stem cells, which need to be inserted under the retina with a high degree of precision.’

[link to full text]

 

TDTOxford surgeons operate robot inside patient’s eye to restore sight

(10 September 2016)

A team of surgeons have restored a patient’s sight by operating a robot inside his eye.

The operation, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, was carried out by doctors at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Using a joystick, the surgeons were able to remove a membrane which was one hundredth of a millimetre thick from his right eye [...].

The patient, the Rev Bill Beaver, 70, had lost most of the sight in the eye because the membrane was covering the retina.

It was an operation which required considerable precision. This was made possible by the Preceyes surgical robot, which has been developed in Holland.

Such is the device’s sophistication, it is even capable of filtering out the surgeon’s hand tremor.

“Operating at the back of the eye needs great precision and the challenge has been to get a robot system to do that through a tiny hole in the wall of the eye without causing damage as it moves around,” said Prof Robert MacLaren, from Oxford University, who carried out the procedure.

[...] He added: "Normally, when we do this operation by hand, we touch the retina and there is some haemorrhage. But when we used the robot, the membrane was lifted cleanly away.”

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianSurgeons use robot to operate inside eye in world first

(10 September 2016)

British surgeons have successfully performed the world’s first robotic operation inside the eye, potentially revolutionising the way such conditions are treated.

The procedure was carried out at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, where surgeons welcomed its success.

On completing the operation, Professor Robert MacLaren said: “There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.

“Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on.

“With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed.”

[...] MacLaren said: “This will help to develop novel surgical treatments for blindness, such as gene therapy and stem cells, which need to be inserted under the retina with a high degree of precision.”

The robotic eye surgery trial involves 12 patients undergoing operations with increasing complexity. In the first part of the trial, the robot is used to peel membranes off the delicate retina without damaging it.

If this part is successful, as has been the case so far, the second phase of the trial will assess how the robot can place a fine needle under the retina and inject fluid through it.

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailOxford priest gets his sight back after world-first eye surgery with a ROBOT to repair hole in his retina

(10 September 2016)

A priest said he felt 'completely relaxed' as surgeons performed revolutionary surgery inside his eye with the aid of a robot.

The patient, Father William Beaver, 70, an associate priest at St Mary the Virgin Church in Oxford, said his eyesight was returning following the operation, having previously experienced distorted vision similar to 'looking in a hall of mirrors at a fairground'.

The procedure - the world's first robotic operation - was carried out by surgeons at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, who welcomed its success and said it could revolutionise the way such conditions are treated.

[...] On completing the operation, Professor Robert MacLaren said: 'There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.

'Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on.

'With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed.'

[...] Prof MacLaren said: 'This will help to develop novel surgical treatments for blindness, such as gene therapy and stem cells, which need to be inserted under the retina with a high degree of precision.'

[link to full text]

 

i NewsRobotic eye operation ‘world first’ with minuscule surgery allowing patient to see again

(10 September 2016)

British surgeons have performed the world’s first operation inside the eye using microscopic robots controlled with a joystick. In doing so, they’ve managed to remove a membrane so small it was only a hundredth of a millimetre thick and enabled one man to see again.

Patient Father William Beaver, 70, said his vision was coming back following the surgery, having previously been highly distorted.

Doctors claimed the technique could revolutionise the way eye conditions are treated.

Professor Robert MacLaren, who carried out the operation as part of a team at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, said: “There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.

“Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on.”

He added: “With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed.”

[...] Professor MacLaren said: “This will help to develop novel surgical treatments for blindness, such as gene therapy and stem cells, which need to be inserted under the retina with a high degree of precision.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily MirrorBritish surgeons perform world's first eye operation with aid of robot on 70-year-old priest

(10 September 2016)

Surgeons have performed a revolutionary eye operation on a 70-year-old priest - thanks to the help of a robot.

The robot performed intricate work inside Father William Beaver's eye after his vision had become so distorted, he said it felt like "looking in a hall of mirrors at a fairground".

Surgeons at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital have now said robots could be used more often for complicated eye operations in the future.

[...] On completing the operation, Professor Robert MacLaren said: "There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.

"Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on.

"With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed."

[...] The current robotic eye surgery trial involves 12 patients undergoing operations with increasing complexity.

In the first part of the trial, the robot is used to peel membranes off the delicate retina without damaging it.

If this part is successful, as has been the case so far, the second phase of the trial will assess how the robot can place a fine needle under the retina and inject fluid through it.

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsRobot eye surgery - how it works

(9 September 2016)

Surgeons in Oxford have used a robot to operate inside the eye - in a world first.  

A team at the John Radcliffe Hospital used the device - which is controlled via a joystick - to remove a membrane covering a patient's retina which was making them blind.

This animated graphic shows how it works.

[link to video]

 

ITVUK surgeons carry out world's first robot eye surgery

(9 September 2016)

British surgeons have performed the world's first robotic operation inside an eye.

Father William Beaver, 70, an associate priest at St Mary the Virgin Church in Oxford, reported that his eyesight was returning following the pioneering procedure.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, one of the surgeons, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future".

The procedure had become necessary as Father Beaver had a membrane growing on the surface of his retina, which had contracted and pulled it into an uneven shape.

That membrane was about 100th of a millimetre thick and needed to be dissected off the retina without damaging it.

Surgeons normally attempt this by slowing their pulse and timing movements between heart beats, but the robot could make it much easier.

During the procedure, medics used a joystick and touchscreen outside the eye to control the robot while monitoring its progress through the operating microscope.

This gave them a notable advantage as significant movements of the joystick resulted in tiny movements of the robot.

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsRobot operates inside eye in world first

(9 September 2016)

Surgeons have used a robot to operate inside the eye and restore sight - in a world first. 

A team at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital used the device, controlled via a joystick, to remove a membrane one hundredth of a millimetre thick.

[...] Robot assisted surgery is commonplace, but until now had never been used inside the eye.

[...] Prof MacLaren said: "Normally when we do this operation by hand we touch the retina and there is some haemorrhage, but when we used the robot the membrane was lifted cleanly away."

[...] Twelve patients will undergo surgical procedures using the robot, in a trial funded by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.

[...] The trial is designed as a proof of principle, to establish whether the robot can do what an eye surgeon does, but with greater accuracy.

But the ultimate goal is for robotics to take eye surgery to another level.

Prof MacLaren said: "There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.

"We can certainly improve on current operations, but I hope the robot will allow us to do new more complex and delicate operations that are impossible with the human hand."

[link to full text]

 

National GeographicWhy There’s New Hope About Ending Blindness

(1 September 2016)

National Geographic September 2016 Front Cover (Small)

 

 

[...] Lewis, 50, of Cardiff, Wales, has retinitis pigmentosa, a disease in which photoreceptors die because of a gene deficiency and vision dims from the periphery. Over time the tunnel of sight shrinks to nothing—“like a dimmer switch slowly going dark,” Lewis says.

[...] In June 2015 she went to Oxford Eye Hospital, lay on a table, surrendered to anesthesia, and, 10 hours later, awoke with a bionic eye. In what was “without doubt the most complex operation I’ve ever done,” says surgeon Robert MacLaren, the Oxford team slipped between her retina’s delicate layers a freckle-size microchip laden with 1,600 tiny photodiodes. MacLaren’s clinical trial is exploring whether this chip, known as the Alpha, can replace the dead photoreceptors (the famous rods and cones) in the center of Lewis’s retina by translating light into bursts of current that the existing neural network will relay to the brain.

[...] MacLaren says the implant project is teaching valuable lessons. For starters, its demonstration that photodiodes can substitute for natural photoreceptors is a huge stride: In the exacting machine that is the eye, we’ve fashioned a cog that fits, even if imperfectly. The devices also show that patients can learn to interpret new presentations of visual stimuli. In addition, MacLaren says, the implants show that “there’s still visual potential once the photoreceptors are gone, because the other nerves are still intact. This is something I never thought could be shown.”

ScienceBlind people see better after shot of gene therapy

(29 April 2016)

Researchers have used gene therapy to preserve or improve the vision of several people born with a rare form of blindness. Called choroideremia, the disease is caused by a mutation in a gene called CHM and often leads to complete blindness by middle age. A team at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom injected a harmless virus carrying a good copy of CHM into the light-sensing retinal cells of six people with choroideremia. [...] The improvements have lasted 4 years, suggesting they may be permanent, unlike a gene therapy treatment for a different blindness disease that in some studies has faded with time.

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsNew genetic therapy works on rare type of blindness

(29 April 2016)

Cricket coach Joe Pepper was going blind until he received a pioneering genetic therapy that not only saved his sight, but actually improved it.

[link to video]

 

Daily MailCould British breakthrough lead to cure for blindness?

(29 April 2016)

A cure for blindness is in sight after pioneering British treatment produced astonishing results.

Five men have been stopped from going blind after undergoing the gene therapy – and some can see better than before.

One can see the stars in the night sky again while another can read the numbers on his mobile phone.

Excitingly, the eye op is still working up to four years on – raising hopes that a single treatment could last a lifetime.

Treated early enough, it may be even possible to stop vision ever deteriorating.

All of those treated so far have a rare eye condition called choroideremia.

[...] Choroideremia, which had been considered incurable, occurs when a missing gene leads to key light-gathering cells at the back of the eye dying.

[...] The treatment involves injecting billions of copies of the missing gene into the eye.

It had been hoped this would stop the disease in its tracks.

But the gene therapy treatment has exceeded expectations, with the New England Journal of Medicine reporting that some of the patients received dramatic improvements in vision.

[...] Professor MacLaren said the finding that five of the first six patients given the jab have seen lasting benefits is ‘unequivocal proof’ that gene therapy provides lasting results.

[link to full text]

 

Popular ScienceGene therapy for congenital blindness has long-lasting effect

(28 April 2016)

For the one in 50,000 people born with the genetic disorder choroideremia, there’s no treatment that can slow the progressive vision loss. Scientists from the University of Oxford have been developing a gene therapy treatment to reverse the effects of the disease, and, though the initial results seemed promising, they had not been sure the treatment would work in the long term.

According to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, the treatment has worked well in patients over the course of four years, buoying hopes that treatment for the condition (and for other genetic degenerative eye conditions like retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration) may become available to other patients soon.

Many gene therapy treatments have been focused on conditions that affect the eyes. These diseases are often caused by just one or two genes, the eyes are easy to access to administer the treatment, and results are often easy to detect by comparing a patient’s treated and untreated eyes.

[...] The researchers tried this treatment on six patients in the UK. The initial results looked good. After four years, not only did the treatment slow the progression of vision loss, in some patients it even improved their vision in the long term. The youngest patient saw the most drastic improvement, indicating to the researchers that administering the treatment to choroideremia patients while they’re young could yield even better results.

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsGene therapy reverses sight loss and is long-lasting

(28 April 2016)

A genetic therapy has improved the vision of patients who would otherwise have gone blind.

[...] This is the first indication that the treatment is viable and could be widely used on patients, according to the eye surgeon leading the trial, Prof Robert MacLaren of Oxford University.

"The concept of gene therapy is that it corrects gene defects. Ideally, we should only have to do that once, because once the DNA is corrected and inserted into the correct cell, that cell should be able to continue its function as normal," he told BBC News.

"We seem to have achieved this concept of one single treatment that does not need to be repeated which is unlike traditional medicines."

[...] He has also begun to develop gene therapy trials to treat more common forms of blindness, such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. These could begin as early as next year.

Treating these disorders will be more challenging. Choroideremia is caused by a defect in a single gene, whereas the more common forms of blindness involve several.

But Prof MacLaren believes that the choroideremia trials have laid the ground for the next phase of studies and, crucially, shown that gene therapy for blindness is safe and works.

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianNew gene therapy treatment boosts quest for vision loss cures

(28 April 2016)

Groundbreaking gene therapy has restored some vision to patients who were going blind.

[...] The results showed some people had improvement in vision for up to four years. They had been suffering from choroideremia, which is caused by a defect in the gene CHM and affects about one in 50,000 people in the UK. Currently there is no cure or treatment for the disease, which progresses slowly, destroying retinal photoreceptors and often leading to complete blindness by middle age.

[...] Prof Robert MacLaren, the lead investigator of the study, said: “There have recently been questions about the long term efficacy of gene therapy, but now we have unequivocal proof that the effects following a single injection of viral vector [carrying the genes] are sustained.

“Even sharpening up the little bit of central vision that these patients have can give them considerable independence. Gene therapy is a new technique in medicine that has great potential. As we learn more about genetics, we realise that correcting faulty genes even before a disease starts may be the most effective treatment.”

Gene therapy involves replacing DNA with DNA that has been programmed in the laboratory to correct faulty genes. MacLaren said: “In this case, success in getting a treatment effect that lasts at least several years was achieved because the viral DNA had an optimal design and the viral vector was delivered into the correct place, using advanced surgical techniques. In brief, this is the breakthrough we have all been waiting for.”

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsGene therapy could help those with macular degeneration

(28 April 2016)

A pioneering new treatment is giving is new hope for those with macular degeneration, a form of blindness that affects hundreds of thousands of elderly people in Britain.

The first trials could take place next year following a clinical study that showed gene therapy improved the vision of patients with a much rarer form of eye disease.

Pallab Ghosh reports.

[link to video]

 

TDT'I was thrilled with my electronic retina'

(25 April 2016)

For years Nikki Watson was unable to walk along the country lanes near her Devon home unaided or without using a cane.

In November, just six weeks after having an electronic microchip fitted in her right eye, Nikki, who has been registered blind since the age of 17, found she could walk unassisted. She will never forget the feeling. “I suddenly realised I’d left my husband, Hal, and another friend behind and was walking happily by myself, because I could make out the hedgerow alongside the road,” says Nikki, 49, from Shebbear, in North Devon.

[...] Last September, Nikki underwent surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital to have the microchip implanted below her retina: containing 1,500 tiny electronic light detectors, it sends signals the optic nerve is able to pick up, so patients can begin to regain some sight.

[...] “Every time it went on, I saw a bright flash. They had laid out objects to identify. I was asked whether I could see a dinner plate or a circular ring. I said it was a ring. When they told me I was right, I wanted to jump up and kiss the ophthalmologist.”

[...] Prof MacLaren hopes the microchip will become available to people with the illness within three years.

“Meanwhile, we’re happy to implant chips in people with retinitis pigmentosa. The trial is scientific, so we need them to be completely blind in order to know that the vision they get after implantation is from the chip. To date nine patients have been implanted, and we’re about to do another three.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailWoman who is losing her sight to a rare genetic condition may have a bionic eye fitted with a 'Terminator-style' microchip to help her see

(27 March 2016)

A woman who is losing her sight could become the first patient in Scotland to be fitted with a bionic eye.

Alice McCartney, of Govan, Glasgow, is losing her sight to a rare genetic condition, but is set to have a 'Terminator-style' microchip fitted, that will help her to carry on seeing.

Medical experts have already successfully implanted a wafer thin electronic chip into the eyes of a number of men in England.

Once activated, the microchip takes over the work of the retina, helping the brain to see.

[...] Alice, 51, told of her joy at being accepted by the team of experts pioneering the technology.

She said: 'If they offer me a bionic eye I'll take it in a heartbeat.' Alice suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, which affects around 20,000 people in the UK.

She fears the sight-robbing-condition will gradually deny her the chance to see her three grandchildren grow up.

Alice has been referred to the world's leading bionic eye specialist, Professor Robert MacLaren, who was educated in Edinburgh.

[...] Professor MacLaren has been hailed a miracle worker after developing a tiny, ultra-thin microchip packed with light sensors.

[link to full text]

 

BBC TwoCould bionic eyes help the blind to see again?

(6 January 2016)

[...] Retinitis Pigmentosa is an inherited eye disorder that damages the light sensitive cells, or photoreceptors, at the back of the retina causing patients to gradually lose their vision.  There is no cure for this disease but a pioneering new technology is now offering a solution.  At the Oxford Eye Hospital doctors have selected 6 patients to receive the most advanced kind of retinal implant – a tiny electronic chip that is inserted into the eye to replace the damaged photoreceptors and restore elements of vision.  It acts a little like a camera, but sends its electrical signals to the brain, rather than to an electronic screen.

[...] The surgery to implant this device is being carried out by Prof Robert MacLaren and each procedure usually takes around 8 hours.  This is because positioning the chip is an extremely delicate and complex process in which precision is vital – if it isn’t implanted in exactly the right place it could damage the optic nerve and meaningful vision might not be achieved. The implant itself is called the Alpha IMS and is made in Germany.  It is a 3x32mm wireless microchip which captures the light entering the eye and stimulates the optic nerve to deliver signals to the brain. A power supply for the device is implanted behind the ear and patients can adjust the gain and frequency to obtain the best possible signal for different conditions.

If this trial is a success it’s possible that this implant could be made available on the NHS.  Doctors also hope that one day this technology can be applied to other eye diseases such as age related macular degeneration.

[link to full text and video]

 

BBC NewsBlind Cardiff woman tests 'bionic' eye for the first time

(5 January 2016)

A Cardiff woman who has lost her eyesight has been given an electronic implant to restore some of her vision.

Rhian Lewis, 49, has an inherited condition that has left her completely blind in her right eye and with virtually no sight in her left.

But surgeons in Oxford have put a tiny light-sensitive microchip at the back of her right eye.

Here is the moment she tries out the implant for the very first time - as she is asked if she can tell where the hands on a clock face are pointing.

[link to video]

 

BBC NewsSight joy for Cardiff woman fitted with a 'bionic eye'

(5 January 2016)

A blind woman from Cardiff has had some of her sight restored with an electronic "bionic" eye implant.

[...] Surgeons at Oxford Eye Hospital implanted a tiny light-sensitive microchip at the back of her right eye in an eight-hour operation.

[...] During follow-up tests, Mrs Lewis was asked to look closely at a large cardboard clock to see if she could tell the time correctly.

She was able to tell it was three o'clock.

"Honest to God, that felt like Christmas Day," she said.

[...] "The problem with having no sight is that you also lose your confidence because you lose your mobility," explained Mrs Lewis.

"It's simple things like shopping, clothes shopping, you don't know what you look like.

"It's been maybe eight years that I've had any sort of idea of what my children look like.

"Now, when I locate something, especially like a spoon or a fork on the table, it's pure elation. I just get so excited that I've got something right."

[link to full text]

 

ITVBlind woman says it felt like 'Christmas Day' when bionic eye enabled her to see for first time in years

(5 January 2016)

A blind mother-of-two has spoken of her joy at being able to see her children and tell the time for the first time in more than five years after being fitted with a "bionic eye."

[...] As part of an ongoing trial at the hospital, surgeons implanted a tiny electronic chip at the back of her right eye's retina in a bid to help her see.

The 49-year-old, from Cardiff, has suffered from retinitis pigmentosa - an inherited disorder - since she was five.

The condition, which has no cure, causes gradual deterioration of the light-detecting cells (photoreceptors) in the retina, which can lead to blindness.

During follow-up tests after the implant, Miss Lewis was asked to look closely at a large cardboard clock to see if she could tell the time correctly.

She had not been able to tell the time with her right eye in 16 years and for about six years with her left eye.

Speaking of the moment she realised she could read the clock, Miss Lewis said: "Honest to god, that felt like Christmas day."

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, who is leading the research at Oxford, said: "It's an amazing process because what Rhian and others are trying to do is reactivate a part of the brain that hasn't been doing anything for the last 10 years or so. There is a lot of rehabilitation because basically they are learning to see again."

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsBionic eye changing woman's life after losing sight

(5 January 2016)

A woman who has gradually been losing her sight for years has been describing the joys of being able to see again after being fitted with a bionic eye.

Rhian Lewis, from Cardiff, Wales, was given the retinal implant as part of a trial which could go on to benefit thousands of people suffering from sight loss.

The 49-year-old had an operation to implant a tiny 3x3mm chip into her right eye.

Fergus Walsh reports.

[link to video]

 

BBC NewsThe Bionic Eye Changing a Woman's Life

(5 January 2016)

 At Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, a clinical trial is taking place in which six patients who have had little or no sight for many years are having a cutting-edge "bionic eye" implanted in an attempt to give them some sight, and independence, back.

The first patient in this trial is 49-year-old Rhian Lewis, from Cardiff.

[...] She explains: "It was a bit nerve-wracking. I didn't know what to expect.

"They sort of put the magnet to the little receiver there on my head and switched the receiver on. They said I might not get any sensation… and then all of a sudden within seconds there was like this flashing in my eye, which has seen nothing for over 16 years, so it was like, 'Oh my God, wow!' It was just amazing to feel that something was happening in that eye, that there was some sort of signal."

[...] "They did the objects on the table and I could get them and I was so chuffed, I must have looked like a kid at Christmas! I was just locating a plate, a cup and a couple of shapes, but it was difficult because I didn't have any co-ordination. I haven't seen anything through that eye for so long, so I kept overshooting it a little bit - but we were getting there. I was just elated, really elated."

[...] "Now, when I locate something, especially like a spoon or a fork on the table, it's pure elation, you know. I just get so excited that I've got something right. It's really just pure joy to get something right, because I've never done it before - well, not for the last 16 or 17 years anyway."

[link to full text]

 

Irish ExaminerBlind woman from Cardiff regains sight with ‘bionic eye’

(5 January 2016)

A blind woman fitted with a ‘bionic eye’ has spoken of her joy after she was able to tell the time for the first time in more than five years.

Rhian Lewis, 49, was given the retinal implant as part of an ongoing trial at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

Surgeons at the Oxford Eye Hospital implanted a tiny electronic chip at the back of her right eye’s retina in a bid to help her see.

[...] Ms Lewis is completely blind in her right eye and has virtually no vision in her left eye.

The implant, made by German firm Retina Implant AG, was placed in Ms Lewis’ eye in June in an operation that can last six to eight hours.

During follow-up tests, Ms Lewis was asked to look closely at a large cardboard clock to see if she could tell the time correctly.

She had not been able to tell the time with her right eye in 16 years and for about six years with her left eye.

She said “oh my God” when she realised she had managed to tell that the time was three o’clock.

She said: “Honest to God, that felt like Christmas day.”

[link to full text]

 

The TimesBlind woman sees again thanks to her bionic eye

(5 January 2016)

When Rhian Lewis realised that she could see to tell the time again, she cried out: “Oh my God”, adding that it “felt like Christmas Day”.

It was the first time in six years that Miss Lewis, who is blind, had been able to read the hands of a clock, and she did so thanks to a “bionic eye”. She is the first in the UK to receive such an advanced electronic eye, which uses a light-sensitive chip inserted behind her damaged retina to communicate directly with her optic nerve.

[...] With only 1,600 pixels, the chip’s resolution is vastly below that possible with a healthy eye, and all it can do is allow people to recognise rudimentary shapes. Even so, Miss Lewis said it represented a vast improvement in her quality of life.

[...] Miss Lewis said she was grateful for whatever help it can offer, even if her vision isn’t perfect. “It’s been, maybe eight years that I’ve had any sort of idea of what my children look like. I’ve got friends now where I’ve got no idea what they look like. And I certainly don’t know how I’ve aged. Now, when I locate something, especially like a spoon or a fork on the table, it’s pure elation. I get so excited. It’s pure joy to get something right, because I’ve never done it before, well, not for 16 or 17 years anyway.”

[...] Clara Eaglen, from the RNIB, said: “The ‘bionic eye’ retinal implant is a potentially life-changing development. Even a small bit of sight can have a real impact, for some people it could be the difference between leaving the house on their own or not.”

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianBritish woman with 'bionic eye' speaks of joy after reading clock for first time in years

(5 January 2016)

A blind woman fitted with a “bionic eye” has spoken of her joy after she was able to tell the time for the first time in more than six years.

Rhian Lewis, 49, was given the retinal implant as part of an ongoing trial at Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital. Surgeons at the Oxford Eye hospital implanted a tiny electronic chip at the back of her right eye’s retina in an attempt to help her see.

[...] During follow-up tests, Lewis was asked to look at a large cardboard clock to see whether she could tell the time. She had not been able to tell the time with her right eye in 16 years or with her left eye for about six years.

She said “Oh my god” when she realised she had managed to recognise it was three o’clock. She added: “Honest to god, that felt like Christmas Day.”

[...] Prof Robert MacLaren, who is leading the research at Oxford, said the technology had huge potential benefits. “It’s an amazing process because what Rhian and others are trying to do is reactivate a part of the brain that hasn’t been doing anything for the last 10 years or so,” he said. “There is a lot of rehabilitation because basically they are learning to see again.”

George Freeman, the minister for life sciences, said: “This groundbreaking research to create the world’s most advanced bionic eye highlights the crucial role of the NHS as a test bed for 21st-century medicine.”

[link to full text]

 

The IndependentBlind woman sees for first time in five years

(5 January 2016)

A blind woman fitted with a “bionic eye” has spoken of her joy after she was able to tell the time for the first time in more than five years.

Rhian Lewis, 49, was given the retinal implant as part of an ongoing trial at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

The mother of two, from Cardiff, has suffered from retinitis pigmentosa – an inherited disorder – since she was five. The condition causes gradual deterioration of the light-detecting cells (photoreceptors) in the retina, which can lead to blindness.

One in 3,000 to 4,000 people in the UK have the disease, for which there is currently no cure.

Ms Lewis is completely blind in her right eye and has virtually no vision in her left. The implant, made by German firm Retina Implant AG, was placed in Ms Lewis’s eye in June. During follow-up tests, Ms Lewis was asked to look closely at a large cardboard clock to see if she could tell the time correctly. She had not been able to do this with her right eye in 16 years and for about six years with her left eye.

When she realised she could tell that the time was three o’clock, she said “Oh my God! That felt like Christmas Day.” Describing the moment the device was turned on, Ms Lewis said: “They said I might not get any sensation and then all of a sudden within seconds there was this flashing in my eye, which has seen nothing for over 16 years, so it was like, oh wow!”

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailHow bionic eye helped me see again after six years

(5 January 2016)

A British woman has told of the ‘pure joy’ she felt after a revolutionary bionic eye allowed her to see for the first time in six years.

Rhian Lewis, 49, said it ‘felt like Christmas Day’ when she was able to read a clock again and could see a car in the street.

The mother of two – who began losing her sight when she was just five years old – can also identify everyday objects such as cutlery once more, as well as enjoy simple pleasures such as seeing the sun shine.

‘It’s pure elation,’ she said.

[...] Seven months on from the procedure, her vision is still improving and it is hoped that one day she will be able to recognise her son and daughter again.

She is the first of at least six Britons to be given the implant in a trial part-funded by the Health Service. Six others have already benefited from a more basic device, and if it continues to impress it could be available on the NHS by 2018.

[...] Lead researcher Professor Robert MacLaren, an eye specialist at Oxford University, said: ‘If we can give someone enough vision to see where they are in their home... then we’ve achieved a great deal. We’re at the start of some very exciting technology.'

[link to full text]

 

The HeraldBionic eye treatment allows blind mother to see

(5 January 2016)

A blind woman fitted with a “bionic eye” has spoken of her joy after she was able to tell the time for the first time in more than five years.

Rhian Lewis (below), 49, was given the retinal implant as part of an ongoing trial at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

[...] During follow-up tests, Mrs Lewis was asked to look closely at a large cardboard clock to see if she could tell the time correctly. She had not been able to tell the time with her right eye in 16 years and for about six years with her left eye. She saw the time was three o’clock.

She said “oh my god” When She realised she had managed to tell that the time was three o’clock.

She said: “Honest to God, that felt like Christmas Day.”

Later she saw sunshine on a silver car near the cloisters of New College, Oxford, when walking with a social services worker who had asked her to point out any features.

[...] “And I was just, well, I was just so excited, I was quite teary.

“The enormity of it didn’t hit me until I’d actually got home, thinking ‘Oh my god, what have I done? I’ve actually spotted something out that I haven’t been able to do’.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily Express'It felt like Christmas' Blind woman fitted with BIONIC EYE tells of joy at seeing again

(5 January 2016)

A blind woman fitted with a "bionic eye" has spoken of her joy after she was able to read a clock for the first time in more than five years.

Rhian Lewis, 49, was given the retinal implant as part of an ongoing trial at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.

[...] During follow-up tests, Mrs Lewis was asked to look closely at a large cardboard clock to see if she could tell the time correctly.

She had not been able to read a clock with her right eye in 16 years and for about six years with her left eye.

She said "oh my God" when she realised she had managed to tell that the time was three o'clock.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, who is leading the research at Oxford, said the technology has huge potential benefit.

"It's an amazing process because what Rhian and others are trying to do is reactivate a part of the brain that hasn't been doing anything for the last 10 years or so," he said.

"There is a lot of rehabilitation because basically they are learning to see again."

Minister for life sciences George Freeman said: "This groundbreaking research to create the world's most advanced bionic eye highlights the crucial role of the NHS as a test bed for 21st century medicine."

[link to full text]

 

Daily MirrorBlind mother given 'bionic eye' is able to tell what her children look like for the first time in 8 years

(5 January 2016)

A blind woman fitted with a "bionic eye" has spoken of her joy after the device partially restored the sight she'd been losing since the age of five.

Rhian Lewis, 49, was given the retinal implant as part of an ongoing trial at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.

[...] Describing the moment the device was turned on, Mrs Lewis said: "They said I might not get any sensation and then all of a sudden within seconds there was like this flashing in my eye, which has seen nothing for over 16 years, so it was like, oh my God, wow!"

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, who is leading the research at Oxford, said the technology has huge potential benefit.

"It's an amazing process because what Rhian and others are trying to do is reactivate a part of the brain that hasn't been doing anything for the last 10 years or so," he said.

"There is a lot of rehabilitation because, basically, they are learning to see again."

Minister for life sciences George Freeman said: "This groundbreaking research to create the world's most advanced bionic eye highlights the crucial role of the NHS as a test bed for 21st century medicine."

[link to full text]

 

The Week'Bionic eye' restores sight for UK woman in pioneering op

(5 January 2016)

A blind woman from Cardiff who has had some of her sight restored with a "bionic eye" said discovering she was once again able to read a clock "felt like Christmas Day".

[...] When the implant is first fitted, users typically see nothing but flashes of light as the chip feeds electronic signals to the nerves behind the eye. However, within a few weeks the brain learns how to interpret those signals into shapes and objects.

[...] In Lewis's case, she was taken onto the streets of Oxford after her operation and was immediately able to identify a silver car. She said: "I walked up the street and the lady from social services said to me to point out anything I thought might or might not be there.

"And the first thing I thought, 'There might be something there' was a car, a silver car, and I couldn't believe it because the signal was really strong and that was the sun shining on the silver car.

"I was just so excited. I was quite teary. The enormity of it didn't hit me until I'd actually got home, thinking, 'Oh my God, what have I done? I've actually spotted something out that I haven't been able to do.'"

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsEast Yorkshire man's gene therapy helps 'restore' sight

(4 September 2015)

Gene therapy has helped to restore sight to a man with a rare condition which destroys the retina.

Gerry Woolfenden, from Hornsea, East Yorkshire, is one of just a handful of people in the world to have the pioneering surgery.

Damage caused by his choroideremia is now being repaired following his operation in April.

[link to video]

 

The Saturday PaperFinetuning gene therapy

(21 February 2015)

[...] Recently, six patients with a rare, genetic form of blindness called choroideremia were treated using gene therapy. An Oxford University team led by Professor Robert MacLaren injected a corrective gene yoked with AAV directly into the retina of the patients. Reporting in The Lancet last March, he said the virus managed to ferry the gene into the cells of the retina, improving the sight of all the patients. One patient said he could see stars again, which he hadn’t for a “long, long time”. According to MacLaren, the technique could soon help patients with more common causes of blindness, such as age-related macular degeneration.

While the results are hopeful, “the optimist has to be steeled,” says Matthew Simunovic, an ophthalmologist currently working with MacLaren’s team. In 2011, gene therapy was used to treat another genetic form of blindness called Leber’s congenital amaurosis. Initially hailed as a success, by 2013 it emerged that certain cells in the patient’s eye were still deteriorating. This suggests, says MacLaren, “that more work was needed to work out the correct dose of gene therapy”. 

[link to full text]

 

NatureCuring blindness: Vision quest

(11 September 2014)

[...] Visual impairment affects some 285 million people worldwide, about 39 million of whom are considered blind, according to a 2010 estimate from the World Health Organization. Roughly 80% of visual impairment is preventable or curable, including operable conditions such as cataracts that account for much of the blindness in the developing world. But retinal-degeneration disorders — including age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the developed world — have no cure.

In the past seven years, there has been mounting hope and excitement about the prospect of slowing or even reversing vision loss from retinal disorders. Clinical trials testing gene therapy, cell transplants and retinal prostheses are under way, and many studies [...] are producing promising results.

[...] Discovering the best timing for the treatment in humans remains a central challenge. Most researchers agree that the best approach is to replace the faulty gene when patients are young, before the degeneration starts or at least when there are more viable cells to save. That could mean doing retinal surgery in someone with good vision — a difficult decision, says Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmologist at the University of Oxford, UK, who is running a gene-therapy clinical trial for another form of congenital blindness. “That is where the risks are greatest, but so are the gains.”

[link to full text]

 

NatureMedical research: Gene-therapy reboot

()

[...] People who want to move into gene-therapy research would do well to consider eye disorders, says Robert MacLaren, a surgeon at the University of Oxford's Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology in Britain. “About one-third of genetic diseases manifest themselves in the retina,” he says. Retinal cells are also easy to access and can be efficiently targeted with adeno-associated viruses (AAV), which are less likely to trigger an immune reaction or cause cancer than other viruses. “We're in the early stages, but undoubtedly the eye will be the most logical target organ for gene therapy,” he says. “And I think what we learn about gene therapy in the eye will help us to apply the techniques much more effectively to other diseases.”

MacLaren's trial of gene therapy for choroideremia, a rare, inherited form of blindness, triggered much excitement when the results were published in The Lancet in March (R. E. MacLaren et al. Lancet 383, 1129–1137; 2014). Choroideremia is caused by a mutation in a gene called CHM that causes pigment cells in the retina to gradually stop working and die. MacLaren's team inserted a functional copy of CHM into an AAV and then injected it into one retina in each of six men with varying degrees of visual acuity. Five of the men showed improvements in their ability to see a dim light in the dark, and the two patients with the most severe choroideremia were able to read additional lines on an eye chart. These improvements have been sustained in the two years since the single treatment.

Researcher Samantha de Silva recognized the enormous potential of gene therapy for the eye. She had earned a medical degree and was completing her residency in ophthalmology at Oxford Eye Hospital, UK, when her career path veered in an unexpected direction. She heard about MacLaren's upcoming gene-therapy trial and was fascinated. “I really wanted to be involved in gene therapy because it has a great potential to benefit patients,” she says. So she took time off from her residency to pursue a PhD in MacLaren's lab. Three and a half years later, she is in the final stages of her thesis project on gene therapy for retinal degeneration. After she completes her residency, she hopes to combine her research with a career in clinical ophthalmology.

[link to full text]

 

Nature BiotechnologyAAV gene therapy continues to woo investors

(8 April 2014)

Syncona, the venture arm of London-based charity Wellcome Trust, in January invested £12 ($20) million in an Oxford startup, the first program of which is a gene therapy for inherited blindness. NightstaRx—pronounced 'Nightstar'—is a spin-out from the University of Oxford and its research commercialization unit Isis Innovation. The company is pursuing a therapy for choroideremia (CHM), an inherited X-linked form of progressive blindness, caused by mutations to the gene encoding Rab-escort protein 1 (REP1). The first symptoms occur in childhood with reduced night vision as the retina degenerates. The gene therapy—an adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector encoding REP1 designed to deliver the correct version to the cells in the retina—was developed by Robert MacLaren at Oxford's Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology. Vision improvements achieved by six patients were published in the Lancet (doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62117-0; 16 January 2014), and a 12-patient phase 1 trial is underway.

[link to full text]

 

Nature Reviews NeurologySensory systems: Promising results in a gene therapy trial for retinal disease

(1 March 2014)

Choroideremia is a degenerative disease of the retina caused by mutations in the CHM gene, which encodes Rab escort protein 1 (REP1), ultimately leading to retinal cell degeneration and blindness. In a recent phase I, multicentre clinical trial, Robert MacLaren from Oxford Eye Hospital, UK and his colleagues have demonstrated that gene therapy with an adeno-associated viral 2 (AAV2) vector containing the CHM gene improves visual acuity and retinal sensitivity in patients with choroideremia.

[...] The study was carried out in six male patients aged 35–63 years at different stages of retinal degeneration. Owing to the rate of degeneration, the area of tissue remaining that is available for transduction with the vector varies according to disease progression. The researchers injected the AAV2 vector into the subretinal space of one eye in each patient. At baseline and 6 months after treatment, best corrected visual acuity was measured using the standard Early Treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy Study protocol, and microperimetry was used to map retinal sensitivity.

Two patients who started the study with advanced choroideremia had improved visual acuity at 6 months, with one gaining over two lines and the other gaining over four lines on the Snellen test. The other four patients, who had near-normal vision at baseline, also had improved visual acuity. None of the participants had any detrimental effects from subretinal injection of the vector, which causes retinal detachment, and in all patients the increase in retinal sensitivity in the treated eye correlated with the vector dose administered per mm2 of surviving retina. By contrast, in the untreated control eyes, microperimetry measurements indicated a decline in visual function over the course of the study.

[link to full text]

 

The EconomistIngenious: Fixing a body’s broken genes is becoming possible

(8 February 2014)

IT SOUNDS like science fiction, and for years it seemed as though it was just that: fiction. But the idea of gene therapy—introducing copies of healthy genes into people who lack them, to treat disease—is at last looking as if it may become science fact.

[...] The most recent success, announced last month in the Lancet, was of an experimental treatment for choroideremia, a type of blindness. This is caused by mutation of the gene for a protein called REP1. Without REP1, the eye’s light receptors degenerate. Robert MacLaren of Oxford University used a virus to deliver working versions of the REP1 gene to the most light-sensitive part of the retina. Five of the six participants in the trial duly experienced an improvement in their sensitivity to light. Two were so improved that they could read more letters than previously on a standard eye chart.

[link to full text]

(If you get re-directed to the main www.economist.com webpage when you click on the preceding link, then enter the following URL in your browser address bar: www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21595888-fixing-bodys-broken-genes-becoming-possible-ingenious)

 

Daily MailME AND MY OPERATION: How a tiny parcel can deliver DNA to stop eyes going blind

(4 February 2014)

[...] About six years ago, I heard about a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa and saw Professor Robert MacLaren, a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. After examining my eyes, he said I actually had choroideremia, a rare condition affecting 1,000 Britons.

[...] Like retinitis pigmentosa, there was no cure or treatment. Choroideremia is passed from mother to son - the defective gene is carried in the  X chromosome. Women have two of these, so a normal X chromosome can compensate for an unhealthy one, making women just carriers.

Professor MacLaren said he was researching gene therapy - putting healthy genes into cells in place of missing or defective ones to correct genetic disorders. He hoped this technique could slow or stop the choroideremia.

[...] In February 2012, under general anaesthetic at Oxford Eye Hospital, I had the treatment in my left eye. I came to a few hours later and wore an eye patch overnight. There was only some discomfort, due to stitches.

The next morning the patch came off and there didn't seem to be any difference.

But at a test a month later, I could see a couple of extra lines on the sight chart with my left eye. It was an extraordinary surprise for me and the doctors.

[link to full text]

 

BloombergWellcome Trust Venture Arm Backs Oxford Blindness Therapy

(30 January 2014)

Syncona LLP, the Wellcome Trust- backed venture-capital fund, invested 12 million pounds ($20 million) in an Oxford University spinoff that is developing gene therapy to treat an inherited form of blindness.

Syncona is backing NightstaRx Ltd., which is testing a treatment that uses a modified virus to deliver the choroideremia gene to cells in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye.

[...] About 1 in 50,000 people are affected by the progressive condition, which is caused by a mutation on the choroideremia gene that encodes a protein that sustains cells in the retina, said Robert MacLaren, a professor of ophthalmology at the Oxford, England-based university and a co-inventor. Symptoms begin in childhood with a reduction in night vision.

NightstaRx has licensed the technology from Isis Innovation, Oxford’s technology-transfer arm, Isis technology-transfer team leader Paul Ashley said in a telephone interview. The company has applied to the U.K.’s Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research for a grant to fund a mid-stage trial. If the application is successful, NightstaRx plans to begin that study in October, MacLaren said in a telephone interview.

Syncona’s investment would fund the final-stage trial and enable it to manufacture the treatment to the necessary standard if approved by regulators, he said.

[link to full text]

 

BBC Radio 4In Touch: Gene therapy

(21 January 2014)

Professor Robert MacLaren from Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital updates us on how gene therapy works as a treatment for blindness, and explains who it may help. [The interview clip is located at 47 seconds from the start of the recording.]

[link to audio]

 

ABC NewsMan Saved From Blindness By Gene Therapy

(20 January 2014)

At age 10 Nick Tuftnell knew he was going to end up blind after being diagnosed with the genetic condition choroideremia.

The condition leads to the death of light-absorbing cells in the eye. The cells die because of a mutated gene in certain ocular cells, which eventually leads to blindness.

[...] However, two years ago Tuftnell took part in a groundbreaking study where gene therapy was used to treat his deteriorating condition.

[...] Tuftnell was one of six patients in a study from the University of Oxford, who underwent gene therapy to help stop the deterioration caused by choroideremia. To help the dying ocular cells, doctors injected working versions of the gene into Tuftnell's eye. The gene can then start to “fix” the cells by patching missing genetic data.

Virus particles were used to deliver the genes in fluid behind the retina.

Dr. Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study, said all the patients had choroideremia, which would eventually have left them blind.

“The key thing about our study that is new is that we’ve gone in before they lost their visual acuity,” said MacLaren, who pointed out that two patients had 20/20 vision before the surgery. “The best way to fix [cells is to] put in the missing gene before they die.”

[link to full text]

 

BMJGene therapy for inherited blindness shows promise in first clinical trial

(16 January 2014)

The first phase I clinical trial of gene therapy for an inherited cause of blindness has shown sustained improvements in visual acuity.

[...] The six patients who received the gene therapy had choroideraemia, a rare inherited blindness that affects one in 50 000 people and for which there is no treatment.

[...] Choroideraemia is caused by a defective CHM gene on the X chromosome so is more prevalent in men. The CHM gene codes for the Rab escort protein REP1 protein. Without the REP1 protein the choroid and retinal pigment epithelium degenerate, and the photoreceptors stop working and die, exposing the sclera.

[...] Gene therapy works by providing cells with a functioning copy of the defective gene. In this study the researchers, from the University of Oxford, spliced the CHM gene into the DNA of an adeno-associated virus and then injected these viral vectors under the retina of one eye of each patient using a very fine needle and a surgical procedure called a vitrectomy (to lift the retina).

The lead researcher, Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said that the effect of the procedure on the patients’ sight was better than they had expected, because retinal detachment is usually associated with a reduction in visual acuity and night vision.

He said, “It’s a very early stage, but we have six patients with very promising results of improvement of vision verified by independent means that to date has been sustained.” Patients have been followed up for between six months and two years.

[link to full text]

 

New Scientist (large)Gene therapy restores sight in people with eye disease

(16 January 2014)

"Before the op, I would look at someone and all I could see for their face was blancmange," says Jonathan Wyatt. "Now, I can see people's faces."

The 65-year-old is one of six people in the world to receive gene therapy for a rare type of inherited eye disease called choroideremia. The first published results of the trial, released today, suggest that tinkering with people's genes can stop the disease from causing blindness – and restore sight in those whose vision has become impaired.

[...] Choroideremia is caused by defects in the CHM gene, which produces a protein called REP-1 and affects one in 50,000 people. In those who have the disease, a lack of REP-1 means that cells in the retina stop working and slowly begin to die off, causing blindness. When he was in his twenties, doctors told Wyatt that he would be blind by the time he was 50 – and that there was no cure.

Enter gene therapy, which uses a vector – usually a virus – to insert a functioning copy of a gene into cells with a gene defect and could in principle be used to treat many genetic conditions. Robert MacLaren of the University of Oxford and his colleagues decided to see if it could correct choroideremia.   Starting two years ago with Wyatt, they injected a virus carrying a corrective copy of the CHM gene into the retinas of people with choroideremia.

Today the team reports that of the six people who received the treatment six months ago or longer, all have described improvements in their vision. "The very next day I saw a mobile phone and I said 'I can read the digits!' I hadn't been able to read the digits on a mobile phone for five years," says Wyatt.

All the people in this trial had varying levels of degeneration before the treatment. However, MacLaren is hopeful that the therapy could also be used to stop choroideremia before there is any significant loss of vision.

[link to full text]

 

MIT Technology ReviewGene Therapy Tested as a Way to Stop Blindness

(16 January 2014)

A new kind of gene therapy has reversed some vision loss in people born with a degenerative eye disease for which there is no existing treatment.

In a first for the field, the treatment can be given to some participants who still had 20/20 vision, albeit in a limited field of vision. By delivering gene therapy at an earlier stage, researchers hope to save more light-sensing cells in the retina.

“We need to push gene therapy forward, to apply it before vision is gone,” says Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmologist at the University of Oxford who led the study. “When retinal damage gets to a certain point, it’s beyond repair.”

MacLaren says earlier treatment could also be particularly important for conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration.

The surgical procedure employed put the precious remaining vision of patients in the trial at risk because it involved detaching delicate retina tissue in one of each participant’s eyes, but so far no problems have occurred since that surgery, the researchers report. Some participants report that they’re now able to detect more light, read more letters and numbers, and even see the stars at night. One patient, who before his treatment could not read any lines on an eye chart with his most affected eye, was able to read three lines with that eye following his treatment.

[link to full text]

 

Financial TimesOxford gene trial makes eye disease breakthrough

(16 January 2014)

Medical researchers in Oxford have partly reversed an inherited and previously untreatable eye disease through gene therapy.

The success in correcting the genetic defect responsible for choroideremia, a progressive form of blindness, surpassed the scientists’ expectations. All six patients taking part in their clinical trial experienced an improvement in eyesight.

“We did not expect to see such dramatic improvements in visual acuity,” said Robert MacLaren, the study leader.

His team at Oxford university reported early results of their clinical trial in the Lancet journal on Thursday. The disorder is caused by a defect in a gene called CHM, which gradually kills light-sensing cells in the retina.

Although it is a rare condition affecting one in 50,000 people, mainly men, Prof MacLaren said similar treatments could help people with more common forms of progressive blindness. “Our findings hold great promise for gene therapy to prevent loss of sight in other retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration.”

[...] If the technique proves itself in extended clinical trials during the next two or three years, it will be used on younger patients who have the gene defect but still see well. The researchers believe that once integrated into retinal cells the correct CHM gene will last many years and perhaps a lifetime.

“If we were able to treat people early, get them in their teens or late childhood, we’d be getting the virus in before their vision is lost,” said Prof MacLaren. “If the treatment works, we would be able to prevent them from going blind.”

[link to full text]

 

CBS Evening NewsGene therapy has clear results for seeing-impaired

(16 January 2014)

Sixty-two-year-old Jonathan Wyatt was diagnosed at age 20 with choroideremia, a rare genetic disorder that causes progressive blindness. In recent years, he was unable to read. He was one of six patients in the gene therapy trial. 

Wyatt told CBS News, “When I got home I looked at Diana’s mobile phone and I said, ‘I can see the digits!’’

People with the disease lack a gene that helps the eye make a protein needed for normal vision. When scientists injected a copy of that gene into the eye, the retinal cells started producing the protein. All six patients had improved vision and two, including Wyatt, had dramatic results.

Robert MacLaren of Oxford University led the study.

“Rather than taking a pill or proteins or tablets, we’re actually correcting the disease at the genetic level,” Maclaren said. “In other words, genetically modifying the patients who have the problems to put the gene back that’s missing.”

[link to full text]

 

Fox NewsGene therapy improves vision in patients with form of incurable blindness

(16 January 2014)

For patients with choroideremia – a rare form of progressive blindness – there are no current treatment options that can help stop their visual degeneration.  But now a new innovative procedure may be the key.

[...] Caused by a mutation in the CHM gene on the X chromosome, choroideremia causes progressive blindness due to degeneration of the choroid, retinal pigment epithelium and retina.  Patients with this disease can start their lives with perfect vision, but eventually start to experience problems with light sensitivity and peripheral vision as they age.

[...] In order to “fix” the mutation found in choroideremia patients, MacLaren and his colleagues genetically altered an adeno-associated virus (AAV), so that it carried a corrective copy of the CHM gene.

“The virus is a small biological organism, and it’s very good at getting into cells,” MacLaren said.  “…But rather than deliver the virus’s DNA, we’ve taken out most of the viral DNA and instead put in the missing gene.  So it releases the DNA into the nucleus – it’s a single stranded DNA with the missing [CHM] gene.”

[...] MacLaren said the study’s results are significant, as it is the first time gene therapy has been used to treat patients with mostly normal vision – before they suffered significant thinning of the retina.  He and his team intend to continue studying their technique, as they are hopeful it might be able to stop vision loss in choroideremia patients altogether.

“Now that we know the virus is doing what it should do, we need to follow the patients up and see if the improvement is correlated with the stopping of degeneration,” MacLaren said.  “…We’re hoping to help more people with this disease, because it’s a terrible diagnosis to have.”

[link to full text]

 

CBS Evening NewsGene therapy improves vision for some with rare disease

(16 January 2014)

Two adults with a rare disease that causes gradual loss of eyesight had their vision improved after being treated with a new gene therapy, according to preliminary results from a new study.

The study involved six patients ages 35 to 63 with choroideremia, an inherited condition with no cure that causes vision problems early in life, and eventually leads to blindness. Patients have a mutation in a gene called CHM, which causes light-sensitive cells in the eye to slowly stop working.

The goal behind the new gene therapy is to use a safe virus to deliver a working copy of the gene to the right part of the eye to prevent the cells from degenerating.

[...] The result showed that the treatment did not cause harm, and in fact, improved vision in a few of the patients.

Six months after the treatment, four patients recovered the visual acuity (clearness or acuteness of vision) that they had before the surgery, and developed increased sensitivity to light. And two patients had improvements in vision: They were able to read two to four more lines on a sight chart.

"We did not expect to see such dramatic improvements in visual acuity," study researcher Robert MacLaren, of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford in the U.K., said in a statement. It is still too early to know if the improvements will last, but they have so far been maintained for as long as two years, MacLaren said.

[link to full text]

 

NBC NewsIn Surprise Result, Gene Therapy Reverses Blinding Eye Disease

(16 January 2014)

An experimental therapy for a blinding eye disease showed early – and surprising – promise when it improved the vision of patients in an early trial that was only supposed to test its safety, doctors reported Wednesday.

The experimental gene therapy not only stopped the steady degeneration of the patients' vision, but appears to have reversed some of the damage. And the effects have lasted two years in one case, British researchers report in the Lancet medical journal.

[...] "It is still too early to know if the gene therapy treatment will last indefinitely, but we can say that the vision improvements have been maintained for as long as we have been following up the patients, which is two years in one case," says Dr. Robert MacLaren of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who leads the research team.

"In truth, we did not expect to see such dramatic improvements in visual acuity and so we contacted both patients' home opticians to get current and historical data on their vision in former years, long before the gene therapy trial started. These readings confirmed exactly what we had seen," he added in a statement.

[...] "If we were able to treat people early, get them in their teens or late childhood, we'd be getting the virus in before their vision is lost," he said. "If the treatment works, we would be able to prevent them from going blind."

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsGene therapy improves vision for patients facing blindness

(16 January 2014)

Medical researchers in Oxford say they have managed to improve the sight of patients who were going blind because of a rare genetic disorder.

Writing in the medical journal, The Lancet, they say that genes - injected into the patients' eyes - revitalised light detecting cells.

It is hoped it may be possible to extend the treatment to some other conditions that cause loss of vision.

Pallab Ghosh reports.

[link to video]

 

BBC NewsGene therapy 'could be used to treat blindness'

(16 January 2014)

Surgeons in Oxford have used a gene therapy technique to improve the vision of six patients who would otherwise have gone blind.

[...] Prof Robert MacLaren, the surgeon who led the research, said he was "absolutely delighted" at the outcome.

"We really couldn't have asked for a better result," he said.

[...] If the improvements seen in the patients continue, the aim will be to offer the treatment to younger choroideremia patients to prevent them from losing their sight.

The condition is relatively rare: it is thought to affect a thousand people in the UK.

But Professor MacLaren believes that success with choroideremia demonstrates the principle that gene therapy could be used to cure other forms of genetic blindness including age-related macular degeneration.

This condition causes blindness in 300,000 people in Britain and causes a deterioration in the vision of one in four people over the age of 75.

"The mechanisms of choroideremia and what we are trying to do with the treatment would broadly be applicable to more common causes of blindness," the professor explained.

"Choroideremia shows some similarities with macular degeneration in that we are targeting the same cells. We don't yet know which genes to target for macular degeneration but we do know now how to do it and how to put the genes back in."

[link to full text and video]

 

RTE NewsGene therapy breakthrough in blindness research

(16 January 2014)

Scientists hope early intervention with the surgical treatment will halt progression of the devastating disorder, choroideremia, before patients are robbed of their sight.

It is the first time gene therapy has successfully been applied to the light-sensitive photoreceptors of the retina, the digital camera at the back of the eye.

Preliminary results from the first six patients taking part in a Phase One trial surprised and delighted the Oxford University team.

Although the trial was only designed to test safety and dosages, two men with relatively advanced disease experienced dramatic improvements to their eyesight.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, who led the gene therapy operations at Oxford Eye Hospital, said: "We're absolutely delighted with the results so far.

"It is still too early to know if the gene therapy treatment will last indefinitely, but we can say that the vision improvements have been maintained for as long as we have been following up the patients, which is two years in one case.

"In truth, we did not expect to see such dramatic improvements in visual acuity and so we contacted both patients' home opticians to get current and historical data on their vision in former years, long before the gene therapy trial started.

"These readings confirmed exactly what we had seen in our study and provided an independent verification."

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsBlindness gene therapy trial: 'I don't trip over things any more'

(16 January 2014)

Researchers in Oxford say they have improved the vision of patients that would otherwise have gone blind.

BBC News reported the start of the trial two years ago - the results of which have now been published in the Lancet.

The so-called gene therapy is for a rare form of blindness called Choroideremia, but the doctors say it could potentially be used to treat the more common form of age-related blindness which affects 300,000 people in the UK and millions across the world.

Jonathan Wyatt was on the verge of losing his sight when he received the treatment two years ago. He told BBC News how his vision has improved.

[link to video]

 

WiredInjecting genes into the eye improves eyesight, could treat blindness

(16 January 2014)

Gene therapy treatment for rare eye disease choroideremia has been shown to not only stall degeneration, but improve the sight of patients involved in the first UK trial.

[...] The disease is caused by a mutation in the CHM gene, which controls the production of the REP-1 protein. This protein is responsible for the activity of another protein, known as Rab, which controls the movement of proteins within cells.

[...] In 2011, professor Robert MacLaren of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at University of Oxford, working in conjunction with Moorfields Eye Hospital, launched a trial to test the reintroduction of the REP-1 gene in the eye. The 24-month trial involved 12 people, all of whom had the REP-1 gene injected straight to the photoreceptors in the retina using a manmade virus.

[...] MacLaren is hopeful that this trial, albeit in its early stages and concerning a small group with a very specific disorder, could pave the way for gene therapy targeting all manner of degenerative eye disorders and blindness.  "It is still too early to know if the gene therapy treatment will last indefinitely, but we can say that the vision improvements have been maintained for as long as we have been following up the patients, which is two years in one case," he said. "The results showing improvement in vision in the first six patients confirm that the virus can deliver its DNA payload without causing significant damage to the retina. This has huge implications for anyone with a genetic retinal disease such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, because it has for the first time shown that gene therapy can be applied safely before the onset of vision loss."

[link to full text]

 

SMHTreatment may save thousands from blindness

(16 January 2014)

Thousands of people suffering from common forms of blindness could have their sight restored by a pioneering treatment. Researchers at Oxford University have discovered that by replacing a missing protein in the retina they can prevent cells from degenerating.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said: "We're absolutely delighted with the results so far.  In truth, we did not expect to see such dramatic improvements. This has huge implications for anyone with a genetic retinal disease such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa because it has, for the first time, shown, that gene therapy can be applied safely before the onset of vision loss."

[...] "The purpose of our trial is to put this missing protein back into the retinal cells and prevent further degeneration," said Professor MacLaren.

"We're not talking about treatment that needs to be repeated; we're talking about a single one-off replacement of the gene.

"What was unique and exciting is we noticed visual improvements very early, which shows us that it is working.

"If we were able to treat people early, get them in their teens or late childhood, we'd be getting the virus in before their vision is lost. If the treatment works, we would be able to prevent them from going blind."

[link to full text]

 

Irish IndependentNew gene therapy operation offers hope to blind

(16 January 2014)

Thousands of people with previously incurable forms of blindness could have their sight restored thanks to a pioneering gene therapy that requires only one operation.

In what scientists called a "very promising" first trial, six patients have been successfully treated for choroideremia, an inherited disease which leads to a gradual loss of sight and, eventually, total blindness.

[...] The treatment, carried out by a team of scientists led by the University of Oxford's Professor Robert MacLaren, halts the damage done by choroideremia by restoring a defective gene in the retina.

In sufferers, a lack of proteins produced by the defective CHM gene leads light-sensitive cells in the retina to slowly stop working, and eventually die off. The disease is often diagnosed in childhood. As it progresses the surviving retina gradually shrinks in size, reducing vision.

Professor MacLaren and his team found a way of restoring a working CHM gene to the eye by transporting it in the cell of a harmless virus, injected underneath the retina with a fine needle.

The gene then produces the necessary protein, repairing the remaining light-sensitive cells and halting the shrinking of the retina. Professor MacLaren said the technique could be available widely within three to five years.

[link to full text]

 

TDTGene therapy heralds cure for blindness

(16 January 2014)

Thousands of people suffering from common forms of blindness could have their sight restored under a pioneering new treatment.

Researchers at Oxford University have discovered that by replacing a missing gene into the retina they can prevent cells from degenerating.

The therapy even improves the sight of those who have already begun to go blind in results that have ‘surpassed expectations.’

Two men who were already at an advanced stage of vision loss have experienced dramatic improvements in their sight which, so far, has lasted for two years.

Professor Robert MacLaren, of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford said: “We’re absolutely delighted with the results so far.

"In truth, we did not expect to see such dramatic improvements.

“This has huge implications for anyone with a genetic retinal disease such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa because it has, for the first time, shown, that gene therapy can be applied safely before the onset of vision loss.”

[link to full text]

 

The TimesNew therapy ‘can reverse sight loss’

(16 January 2014)

Inherited blindness could one day be prevented by a pioneering gene therapy that has reversed sight loss in its first two patients. 

Patients with a rare genetic condition compared the treatment to “turning on the floodlights” after years of deteriorating sight. Oxford scientists hope their method, which corrects a faulty gene by using a virus to implant an “extra chromosome”, could ultimately be used to stop hundreds of thousands of people with conditions such as macular degeneration from going blind. 

Although a treatment will not be routinely available for some time, researchers said they were very optimistic after seeing “dramatic  improvements” in the first stage trial.

The technique has been tested on nine patients with choroideremia, a condition affecting one in 50,000 people where a single faulty gene causes cells in the retina to die off, eventually leading to blindness. 

The results were reported in The Lancet. Professor Robert MacLaren of Oxford University, who led the research, said: “This has huge implications for anyone with a  genetic retinal disease such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, because it has for the first time shown that gene  therapy can be applied safely before the onset of vision loss.”

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianGene therapy partially restores vision in rare blindness disorder

(16 January 2014)

Two men with progressive blindness have regained some of their vision after taking part in the first clinical trial of a gene therapy for the condition.

The men were among six patients to have experimental treatment for a rare, inherited, disorder called choroideremia, which steadily destroys eyesight and leaves people blind in middle age.

After therapy to correct a faulty gene, the men could read two to four more lines on an optician's sight chart, a dramatic improvement that has held since the doctors treated them. One man was treated more than two years ago.

The other four patients, who had less advanced disease and good eyesight before the trial, had better night vision after the therapy. Poor sight in dim light is one of the first signs of the condition.

[...] Doctors said the improvements in the two patients went far beyond their expectations, but they cautioned that it was too soon to say whether the effects would last.

"It is still too early to know if the treatment we have initiated is a permanent cure, but so far the vision that we've seen improved has been maintained," said Robert MacLaren, a consultant surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital, who led the trial.

[link to full text]

 

The IndependentPioneering first gene therapy trial opens the door

(16 January 2014)

The sight of thousands of people with previously incurable forms of blindness could be saved thanks to a pioneering new gene therapy that requires just one operation.

In what scientists called a “very promising” first trial, six patients have been successfully treated for choroideremia – an inherited disease that leads to a gradual loss of sight and eventually total blindness.

While the condition itself is rare, the success of the new treatment holds out the hope that similar methods could be used to halt the progress of other genetic causes of blindness – including age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause, which affects 500,000 people in the UK alone.

The treatment, carried out by scientists led by the University of Oxford’s Professor Robert MacLaren, halts the damage done by choroideremia by restoring a defective gene in the retina.

[...] “The results showing improvement in vision in the first six patients confirm that the virus can deliver its DNA payload without causing significant damage to the retina,” Professor MacLaren said. “This has huge implications for anyone with a genetic retinal disease such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, because it has for the first time shown that gene therapy can be applied safely before the onset of vision of loss.”

“We’re riding on the back of the genetic revolution,” he added. “We now understand the genes involved in the disease. Having identified them, we’re now looking at ways in which we might treat them.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailGene breakthrough restores the sight of people with inherited eye disease and could save thousands from blindness

(16 January 2014)

A pioneering therapy could prevent thousands of people from going blind through old age.

The treatment, which involves a single injection, has been found to help restore the sight of people who are suffering from inherited eye disease.

Its success in helping two men who were told they would go blind ‘surpassed expectations’ and it could be used to help the hundreds of thousands of people losing their sight through more common,  age-related blindness in future.

Early findings suggest it promotes an improvement for patients on the verge of losing their sight.

It appears to have halted progression of choroideremia, which is caused by a gene defect that destroys light-sensing cells in the retina at the back of the eye.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, who led the operations at Oxford Eye Hospital, said he was ‘absolutely delighted’ with the results so far.

‘It is still too early to know if the gene therapy treatment will last indefinitely, but we can say that the vision improvements have been maintained for as long as we have been following up the patients, which is two years in one case.

'In truth, we did not expect to see such dramatic improvements.’

[link to full text]

 

Daily MirrorTwo men going blind become first to have their sight restored with revolutionary gene therapy surgery

(16 January 2014)

Two men going blind from an incurable eye disease have become the first to have their sight restored with pioneering gene therapy, it is revealed today.

Jonathan Wyatt, 65, and Toby Stroh, 56, were born with a genetic condition called choroideremia which causes people to slowly lose their sight.

Their vision had badly deteriorated but Oxford University scientists reversed the problem by injecting a healthy copy of the defective gene into the retina.

Each patient had just one eye treated so researchers could gauge any improvements by comparing it with the other.

[...] During two-hour ops, the researchers injected a virus carrying the healthy gene into the eye. The patients noticed a dramatic improvement after a month and further progress for six months.

The trial, which began two years ago, was mainly designed to see if the procedure was safe. Researchers were stunned when they found out how well it worked.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, who led the study, said the findings, which are reported in The Lancet today, have “huge implications for anyone with a genetic retinal disease”.

[link to full text]

 

The HeraldGene therapy gives sight back to patients due to go blind

(16 January 2014)

Pioneering gene therapy has restored vision to two men with a rare inherited eye disease who were told to expect to go blind.

[...] Preliminary results from the first six patients taking part in a Phase One trial surprised and delighted the Oxford University team.

Although the trial was only designed to test safety and dosages, two men with relatively advanced disease experienced dramatic improvements to their eyesight.

The researchers are now planning a larger Phase II trial that will focus on the therapy's effectiveness.

Professor Robert MacLaren, who led the gene therapy operations at Oxford Eye Hospital, said: "We're absolutely delighted with the results so far.

"It is still too early to know if the gene therapy treatment will last indefinitely, but we can say that the vision improvements have been maintained for as long as we have been following up the patients, which is two years in one case.

"In truth, we did not expect to see such dramatic improvements in visual acuity and so we contacted both patients' home opticians to get current and historical data on their vision in former years, long before the gene therapy trial started.

"These readings confirmed exactly what we had seen in our study and provided an independent verification."

[link to full text]

 

The WeekGene therapy: why new technique gives hope to the blind

(16 January 2014)

SCIENTISTS at Oxford University have used gene therapy to improve the vision  of six people who would have otherwise gone blind – a breakthrough that could  potentially help thousands of people suffering an inherited form of  blindness.

Professor Robert MacLaren, the surgeon who led the research, said he was  "absolutely delighted" and that his team "could not have asked for a better  result".

[...] If the improvements seen in the patients continue, the aim will be to offer the treatment to younger choroideremia patients to prevent them from losing their sight. "We're not talking about treatment that needs to be repeated, we're talking about a single one off replacement of the gene," said MacLaren. "If we were able to treat people early, get them in their teens or late childhood, we'd be getting the virus in before their vision is lost. If the treatment works, we would be able to prevent them from going blind."

[...] The researchers believe that the treatment could in time be used to treat other genetic forms of blindness, including age-related macular degeneration, which causes deterioration in the vision of one in four people over the age of 75. "The mechanisms of choroideremia and what we are trying to do with the treatment would broadly be applicable to more common causes of blindness," the professor explained.

[link to full text]

 

CTV NewsNew gene therapy improves vision in patients with incurable form of blindness

(15 January 2014)

Researchers in the U.K. have used an experimental gene therapy to restore some vision in patients who are progressively going blind due to a genetic eye disease called "choroideremia."

Researchers at the University of Oxford have treated nine patients who suffer from choroideremia with a new therapy that's designed to replace a defective gene with a healthy one in a single injection.

[...] Six months after the treatment, all of the patients had their vision tested.

All the treated patients showed improvements in their vision in dim light, and one-third of the patients were able to read more lines on an eye chart, the researchers found.

Dr. Robert MacLaren, the study's lead researcher, said the initial findings are groundbreaking and can help researchers studying other eye diseases.

"This has huge implications for anyone with a genetic retinal disease such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, because it has for the first time shown that gene therapy can be applied safely before the onset of vision loss," he said in a statement.

And while it's too soon to say if the benefits of the gene therapy will last indefinitely, the vision improvements in the six patients have so far been maintained for two years without any side effects, he said.

[link to full text]

 

ReutersExperimental gene therapy improves sight in patients going blind

(15 January 2014)

[...] In the trial, a team led by Robert MacLaren of the University of Oxford, a consultant surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital, injected the patients' retinas with a vector - in this case a genetically engineered virus - to deliver a corrective copy of the gene to the appropriate part of the eye.

"The virus has to be delivered to the target cells, which are the cells of the retina," MacLaren explained. To do that, the surgeon performs an operation similar to cataract surgery in which the patient's retina is detached and lifted, and the virus is then injected underneath with a fine needle.

"The virus goes in, infects the cells and puts the protein back into the cells - so we're harnessing the capability of the virus to infect cells and deliver its DNA," he said.

"This is the exciting thing about gene therapy," said MacLaren, whose trial results were published in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday. "We're talking about a single one-off genetic correction ... that has long-standing effects that so far have not been shown to diminish."

[...] He stressed that the therapy is still in the experimental stage, with more trials likely to take up to five years before it could be submitted for a licence with a view to making it available to all patients.

"If we were able to treat people early, get them in their teens or late childhood, we'd be getting the virus in before their vision is lost," he said. "If the treatment works, we would be able to prevent them from going blind."

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailInjecting a virus into my eye saved my sight

(19 March 2013)

A new form of gene therapy could help thousands with an inherited eye condition that leads to blindness — and possibly treat age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma.

[...] Robert MacLaren is professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and consultant ophthalmologist at the Oxford Eye Hospital.

Choroideremia is one of many causes of blindness linked to faulty genes. He says:

Others include retinitis pigmentosa, where the retina gradually deteriorates, and age-related macular degeneration — the UK’s leading cause of blindness. Glaucoma also has a strong genetic basis.

Choroideremia is caused by a missing gene that is needed for healthy blood vessels in the back of the eye.

[...] In October 2011, with funding from the UK Department of Health, the Wellcome Trust and Fight for Sight, we were able to begin the world’s first attempt to treat choroideremia.

First the patient is given a general anaesthetic. To reach the cells behind the retina, we have to detach the retina using a probe.

Then we use a very fine needle, thinner than a human hair, to inject ten billion copies of this tiny virus carrying gene material behind the retina — the DNA will gradually permeate the defective cells within three to four weeks.

While the trial has not yet concluded and we don’t have full results yet, I can say this is incredibly exciting.

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianRetinal implant restores partial sight to blind people

(20 February 2013)

Blind people have described smiles on friendly faces, the food on their plates, and household objects from telephones to dustbins, after surgeons fitted them with electronic chips to partially restore their vision.

Results from the first eight patients to enrol in a clinical trial of the retinal implants show that five found the chips improved their eyesight enough to be useful in everyday life.

All those involved – men and women aged 35 to 62 – had lost their sight to retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary disease that destroys the light-sensitive cells in the eye. The chip stands in for the defunct cells by detecting light rays and converting them into electrical pulses, which are sent along the optic nerve to the brain.

Each patient spent up to 10 hours in surgery to have the 3mm by 3mm chip implanted in one eye. The chip is studded with 1,500 light-sensitive elements that pick up light falling on the macula, the most light-sensitive part of the retina.

[...] Robert MacLaren, a consultant retinal surgeon involved in the trial at Oxford Eye Hospital, said: "We've had success with the implants so far, there is no doubt about that. We've had completely blind patients who were able to see things again, but the technology is still early, we need to develop it further."

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailBlind Paralympian who has 23 golds can finally see all his medals... with a new bionic eye

(20 February 2013)

He's won more than 50 medals swimming for his country, but Tim Reddish only ever had the pleasure of seeing a handful of them.

Diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition at the age of 31, the former Paralympian went totally blind 17 years ago.

But thanks to the fitting of a bionic eye, the 55-year-old can now see his haul in all its glory.

Mr Reddish – currently the chairman of the British Paralympic Association – told yesterday how a revolutionary retinal chip is enabling him to make out shapes and read a clock face.

[...] He said of the moment medics switched on the chip: ‘It was as if a match had been lit in a dark room – it was unbelievable.

‘In the lab tests, when there are objects on a table, and the lighting is bright, I can tell you how many objects there are, and most of the time I can read the clock.

'To be able to see even the vaguest of blurry outlines of the medals I won is a terrific achievement and means a lot to me.’

[...] Robert MacLaren, a consultant retinal surgeon involved in the trial, said: ‘This technology has proven that it is possible to restore some sight to a person who before was completely blind. It is a huge step forward but there is still much more work to be done.’

[link to full text]

 

METROBlind Paralympian Tim Reddish has sight partially restored after pioneering eye surgery

(20 February 2013)

A blind former Paralympic swimming champion’s sight has been partially restored after being fitted with a pair of bionic eyes.

Tim Reddish, 55, can now see vague shapes after having an implant in his retinas that allows him to see for the first time since going completely blind 17 years ago.

[...] He underwent the pioneering ten hour surgery last October after agreeing to have a 3mm microchip with 1,500 light-sensitive panels inserted into both eyes as part of a medical trial.

‘I would say the implant is changing my life,’ he explained. ‘Some of the cells around my retina were damaged when the implant was fitted but as they begin to heal, I hope I will be able to see more.

‘To be able to even see the vaguest of blurry outlines of the medals I won is a terrific achievement and means a lot to me.’

[...] ‘I knew there was a risk it might not work at all and I had to accept that,’ he added.

‘But then they said ‘we’re turning it on’, and it was as if a match had been lit in a dark room – it was unbelievable.’

Robert MacLaren, a consultant retinal surgeon involved in the trial at Oxford Eye Hospital, said: ‘We’ve had success with the implants so far, there is no doubt about that.

‘We’ve had completely blind patients who were able to see things again, but the technology is still early, we need to develop it further.’

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsTotally blind mice get sight back

(6 January 2013)

Totally blind mice have had their sight restored by injections of light-sensing cells into the eye, UK researchers report.

The team in Oxford said their studies closely resemble the treatments that would be needed in people with degenerative eye disease.

[...] Patients with retinitis pigmentosa gradually lose light-sensing cells from the retina and can become blind.

The research team, at the University of Oxford, used mice with a complete lack of light-sensing photoreceptor cells in their retinas. The mice were unable to tell the difference between light and dark.

They injected "precursor" cells which will develop into the building blocks of a retina once inside the eye. Two weeks after the injections a retina had formed, according to the findings presented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Prof Robert MacLaren said: "We have recreated the whole structure, basically it's the first proof that you can take a completely blind mouse, put the cells in and reconstruct the entire light-sensitive layer."

Previous studies have achieved similar results with mice that had a partially degenerated retina. Prof MacLaren said this was like "restoring a whole computer screen rather than repairing individual pixels".

[link to full text]

 

The EngineerTwo patients regain sight following retinal implants

(4 May 2012)

Two patients have regained partial eyesight thanks to the successful execution of a surgical procedure to embed retinal implants into them.

A team at King’s College Hospital, led by eye surgeon Tim Jackson, carried out retinal implant surgery on a patient last month, in tandem with Prof Robert MacLaren at the Oxford Eye Hospital.

Kings and the Oxford Eye Hospital are two centres taking part in a UK trial of a retinal implant for patients with the degenerative eye condition retinitis pigmentosa.

Both patients — who had no vision prior to surgery — are said to be doing well.

[...] Jackson and MacLaren said: ‘We are excited to be involved in this pioneering subretinal implant technology and to announce that the first patients implanted in the UK were successful. The visual results of these patients exceeded our expectations.

‘This technology represents a genuinely exciting development and is an important step forward in our attempts to offer people with retinitis pigmentosa a better quality of life.’

[link to full text]

 

Irish ExaminerEye implant trials a success

(4 May 2012)

The first clinical trials of an electronic eye implant designed to restore the sight of blind people have proved successful and “exceeded expectations”, scientists said yesterday.

Eye experts developing the pioneering technology said the first group of British patients to receive the electronic microchips were regaining “useful vision” just weeks after undergoing surgery.

[...] Retina Implant AG, a leading developer of subretinal implants, fitted two RP sufferers with the wireless device in mid-April as part of its British trial.

The patients were able to detect light immediately after the microchip was activated, while further testing revealed there were also able to locate white objects on a dark background, Retina Implant said.

Ten more British sufferers will be fitted with the devices as part of the British trial, which is being led by Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King’s College Hospital and Robert MacLaren, a professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and a consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital.

They said: “The visual results of these patients exceeded our expectations. This technology represents a genuinely exciting development and is an import step forward in our attempts to offer people with RP a better quality of life.”

[link to full text]

 

The Times‘Bionic eye’ offers vision of a brighter future for the blind

(4 May 2012)

The vision of two completely blind men has been partially restored through the use of “bionic” eyes.

Chris James and Robin Millar, both of whom had lost their sight as a result of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa — in which the eye’s light receptors  slowly degrade until they stop working entirely — had the revolutionary  electronic devices implanted last month.

By interacting directly with the optic nerve, the chips, inserted behind the retina, provide the brain with rudimentary images, allowing the patient to  see lights and recognise simple shapes.

[...] The operations were performed at Oxford University Eye Hospital and King’s  College Hospital, London. During a 12-hour procedure, surgeons inserted the 3mm-square microchips, along with a small control unit located behind the  ear.

“It’s like a 1,500-pixel digital camera,” Robert MacLaren, a consultant ophthalmologist at the Oxford hospital, told The Times. “It basically replaces the photoreceptors.”

He hopes that the technique can be extended to patients with different and more common conditions, including macular degeneration, which affects almost a quarter of a million people in Britain. “It wouldn’t be a relevant treatment for someone with optic nerve damage, but most of the untreatable  causes of blindness are due to losing these light-sensitive cells,” he said.  “Every day I deal with people in my job who lose their sight. To be part of this is amazing.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily Mail'I've dreamed in colour for the first time in 20 years': Blind British man can see again after first successful implant of  'bionic' eye microchips

(4 May 2012)

It was the ‘magic moment’ that released Chris James from ten years of blindness.

Doctors switched on a microchip that had been inserted into the back of his eye three weeks earlier.

After a decade of darkness, there was a sudden explosion of bright light – like a flash bulb going off, he says.

Now he is able to make out shapes and light. He hopes his sight – and the way his brain interprets what the microchip is showing it – will carry on improving.

Mr James, 54, is one of two British men who have had their vision partly restored by a pioneering retina implant.

The other, Robin Millar, one of Britain’s most successful music producers, says he has dreamed in colour for the first time.

Both had lost their vision because of a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, where the photoreceptor cells at the back of the eye gradually cease to work.

[...] Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal  surgeon at King’s College Hospital and Robert MacLaren, a professor of  ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and a consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital, who are running the trial, say it  has ‘exceeded expectations’ with patients already regaining ‘useful  vision’.

[link to full text]

 

The IndependentBionic eye helps the blind get a glimpse of future

(4 May 2012)

Three weeks ago, Chris James, who has been blind for 25 years, saw a sudden pulsating light in his left eye, like a camera bulb or a lightning flash.

Doctors had just switched on a wafer-thin, 3mm microchip implanted at the back of his eye. At first all he could see was light. Now he can distinguish shapes and might, in time, even be able to recognise faces.

Mr James's experimental "bionic eye" reacts to light, sending an electronic signal that is picked by the optic nerve and processed by the brain into an image. The treatment could partially restore the sight of thousands of sufferers of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which causes the photoreceptor cells at the back of the eye to deteriorate.

[...] The surgery involves inserting a cable through the layers of the eyeball to place the chip on an area of the retina the size of a pinhead. The chip is connected to a power source implanted behind the ear. "What makes this unique is that all functions of the retina are integrated into the chip," said Professor Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who carried out the first operation. "It has 1,500 light-sensing diodes and small electrodes that stimulate nerves to create a pixellated image."

[link to full text]

 

The SunBionic eye patient hopes to see his wife for first time after pioneering op

(4 May 2012)

BLIND Chris James is looking forward to seeing his wife for the first time ever - thanks to a bionic eye implant. 

Chris, 54, is one of two men who have had the tiny 3mm square microchip fitted into their eyes in a pioneering project.

The sensor contains 1,500 electrodes which detect light reaching the back of the eye and convert it into electronic signals which are transmitted to the brain. 

Chris, who lost his sight to a hereditary illness 22 years ago, has now got rudimentary vision which allows him to see the outline of shapes. 

[...] The clinical trials in Britain have been led by Professor MacLaren and Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King’s College Hospital. 

Ten more trial patients are due to be treated but Prof MacLaren and Mr Jackson say the results so far have exceeded expectations. 

They said: “This technology represents a genuinely exciting development and is  an important step forward in our attempts to offer people with RP a better quality of life.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily ExpressBionic eyes restore the sight of men blind for 20 years

(4 May 2012)

TWO blind men can see for the first time in decades after being fitted with “bionic eyes”.

Robin Millar, 60, and 54-year-old Chris James can already distinguish light and some shapes, and it’s expected they will eventually be able to recognise faces.

The pair, who gradually lost their sight to a genetic condition known as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), were the first UK patients to have a special microchip with 1,500 electrodes implanted below the retina.

Doctors who carried out the pioneering surgery in mid-April said results had “exceeded expectations”.

[...] The trials are being led by surgeons Tim Jackson, of King’s College Hospital in London, and Robert MacLaren, of Oxford Eye Hospital. The two doctors said: “We are excited to be involved in this pioneering sub-retinal implant technology and to announce the first patients implanted in the UK were ­successful.

“The visual results of these patients exceeded our expectations. This technology represents a genuinely exciting development and is an important step forward in our attempts to offer people with RP a better quality of life.”

[link to full text]

 

The HeraldElectronic eye implant trials prove successful

(4 May 2012)

THE first UK clinical trials of an electronic eye implant to restore the sight of blind people have proved successful and exceeded expectations, scientists said.

Eye experts developing the pioneering new technology said the first group of British patients to receive the electronic microchips were regaining useful vision just weeks after undergoing surgery.

The news will offer fresh hope for people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP) – a genetic eye condition that leads to incurable blindness.

[...] Ten more British sufferers will be fitted with the devices as part of the British trial, led by Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King's College Hospital and Robert MacLaren, a professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and a consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital.

They said: "We are excited to be involved in this pioneering subretinal implant technology and to announce the first patients implanted in the UK were successful.

"The visual results of these patients exceeded our expectations.

"This represents a genuinely exciting development and is an important step forward in our attempts to offer people with RP a better quality of life."

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsBlind man 'excited' at retina implant

(3 May 2012)

A British man who has been totally blind for many years has had part of his vision restored after surgery to fit a pioneering eye implant.

The device, which was fitted behind the retina, has enabled Chris James to perceive light and even some shapes.

The BBC's Fergus Walsh reports.

[link to video]

 

CBS Evening NewsEye implants restore vision in two British patients

(3 May 2012)

Is there a cure for blindness near? Ask the scientists in the U.K. who have restored useful vision in two men who had previously been totally blind.

During clinical trials at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust in the U.K., doctors implanted small wireless devices in two British men who suffered from retinis pigmentosa, a genetic eye condition that leads to total blindness. The microchips, made by German company Retina Implant AG, contain 1,500 tiny electronic light detectors implanted below the retina, which allow the optic nerve to pick up electronic signals and help patients regain sight.

"What makes this unique is that all functions of the retina are integrated into the chip," Professor Robert MacLaren, who led the surgical team, said in a university news release.

Immediately after the electronic eyes were activated, the patients were able to detect light and locate objects on a dark background.

[...] The patients are continuing to have follow-up testing of their microchips, but MacLaren says "We are all delighted with these initial results." He hopes "that the electronic chips will provide independence for many people who are blind from retinitis pigmentosa."

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsTwo blind British men have electronic retinas fitted

(3 May 2012)

Two British men who have been totally blind for many years have had part of their vision restored after surgery to fit pioneering eye implants.

They are able to perceive light and even some shapes from the devices which were fitted behind the retina.

The men are part of a clinical trial carried out at the Oxford Eye Hospital and King's College Hospital in London.

Professor Robert MacLaren and Mr Tim Jackson are leading the trial.

[...] Prof MacLaren, who fitted the first implant in the UK at the Oxford Eye Hospital, said:

"It's the first time that British patients who were completely blind have been able to see something.

"In previous studies of restorative vision involving stem cells and other treatments, patients always had some residual sight.

"Here the patients had no light perception at all but the implant reactivated their retina after more than a decade."

[link to full text]

 

Irish IndependentHope for blindness cure as eye implant trials successful

(3 May 2012)

THE first UK clinical trials of an electronic eye implant designed to restore the sight of blind people have proved successful and "exceeded expectations", scientists said today.

Eye experts developing the pioneering new technology said the first group of British patients to receive the electronic microchips were regaining "useful vision" just weeks after undergoing surgery.

The news will offer fresh hope for people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP) - a genetic eye condition that leads to incurable blindness.

[...] Ten more British sufferers will be fitted with the devices as part of the British trial, which is being led by Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King's College Hospital and Robert MacLaren, a professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and a consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital.

They said: "We are excited to be involved in this pioneering subretinal implant technology and to announce the first patients implanted in the UK were successful.

"The visual results of these patients exceeded our expectations. This technology represents a genuinely exciting development and is an import step forward in our attempts to offer people with RP a better quality of life."

[link to full text]

 

TDTSuccess of electronic eye trial gives hope to the blind

(3 May 2012)

The first UK clinical trials of an electronic eye implant designed to restore the sight of blind people have proved successful and "exceeded expectations", scientists said today.

Eye experts developing the pioneering new technology said the first group of British patients to receive the electronic microchips were regaining "useful vision" just weeks after undergoing surgery. 

The news will offer fresh hope for people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP) - a genetic eye condition that leads to incurable blindness. 

[...] Ten more British sufferers will be fitted with the devices as part of the British trial, which is being led by Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King's College Hospital and Robert MacLaren, a professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and a consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital.

They said: "We are excited to be involved in this pioneering subretinal implant technology and to announce the first patients implanted in the UK were successful. 

"The visual results of these patients exceeded our expectations. This technology represents a genuinely exciting development and is an import step forward in our attempts to offer people with RP a better quality of life."

[link to full text]

 

The Independent'Bionic eye' operation helps blind man to see

(3 May 2012)

Three weeks ago, Chris James, who has been blind for 20 years, saw a sudden pulsating light in his left eye, like a camera bulb or a lighting flash.

Doctors had just switched on a wafer-thin, 3mm microchip implanted at the back of his eye.

Now he can distinguish shapes and might, in time, even be able to recognise faces.

Mr James' experimental “bionic eye” reacts to light sending an electronic signal that is picked by the optic nerve and processed by the brain into an image. The treatment could partially restore the sight of thousands of sufferers of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which causes the photoreceptor cells at the back of the eye to deteriorate.

[...] “What makes this unique is that all functions of the retina are integrated into the chip,” said Professor Robert McLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who carried out the first operation, assisted by Mr Tim Jackson, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at King's College Hospital in London.

“It has 1,500 light sensing diodes and small electrodes that stimulate the overlying nerves to create a pixellated image. Apart from a hearing aid-like device behind the ear, you would not know a patient had one implanted.”

[link to full text]

 

Daily MirrorBionic vision: Amazing new eye chip helps two blind Brits to see again

(3 May 2012)

An innovative eye implant that works like the chip in a mobile phone camera is helping two blind men to see again.

Chris James, blind for 22 years, and Robin Millar, who has had no sight for 27 years, told of their joy yesterday after becoming the first in the country to benefit from the new technology.

[...] Another 10 Brits with RP will be fitted with the German-made devices in a trial led by Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King’s College Hospital in London and Robert MacLaren, professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital.

Prof MacLaren said: “With the new technology and the complexity of everything, we are absolutely delighted. The visual results of these patients have exceeded our expectations.

“We should be very excited by this particularly if – like me – you are involved in telling people they are going to go blind.

"Effectively what we are looking at is the equivalent of if you were working in spinal chord repair and then having a device which could be implanted in a patient’s spinal chord and having them walk again.”

[link to full text]

 

METROBionic eye implant helps blind Chris James to see again after 20 years

(3 May 2012)

A blind man has become the first British patient to be fitted with a bionic eye that has given him rudimentary vision.

Chris James has been unable to see for more than 20 years, but now has been fitted with a digital chip in an eight-hour operation.

Light falling on the sensor is converted into an electrical signal that is picked up by nerves and transmitted to the visual processing region of the brain, creating a grainy black and white image.

[...] Mr James said: ‘I’ve always had that thought that one day I would be able to see again.

‘This is not a cure, but it may put the world into some perspective. It’ll give me some imagery rather than just a black world.’

The innovative operation will give the 25,000 families in Britain affected by the condition, for which there is no cure, some hope that their relatives could see again.

Professor Robert MacLaren said the success of surgery was a ‘great relief’ and revealed that the surgeons are ‘absolutely delighted with the result’.

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsCan you build a bionic body? The eye

(2 March 2012)

Later this year the first eye implant in the UK will take place. A light-sensitive chip will hopefully allow the patient to see with their damaged eye, unlike alternative approaches that use a camera fitted to a pair of glasses.

The light-sensitive chip is attached under the retina at the back of the eye. It converts light into electrical impulses which are then sent to the brain. The patient is then able to interpret the light falling onto the tiny 1,500 pixel implant as recognisable images. The device is powered by a battery fitted behind the ear. The implant costs about £65,000 (US $100,000; 80,000 euros) excluding surgery and maintenance costs.

[...] Prof Robert MacLaren will lead the trial at Oxford Eye Hospital, along with Tim Jackson at King's College Hospital. In the video Prof MacLaren demonstrates the Retina Implant.

[link to full text and video]

 

BBC Radio 4In Touch: Gene therapy

(1 November 2011)

Professor Robert MacLaren talks about the recent success at Oxford Hospital treating choroideremia using gene therapy. [The interview clip is located at 1 minute 50 seconds from the start of the recording.]

[link to audio]

 

BBC NewsGene therapy: New hopes to halt blindness

(28 October 2011)

Researchers in Oxford are developing a genetic therapy which they hope could eventually stop people going blind.

They have treated Jonathan Wyatt who is in his 60s and on the verge of losing his sight.

As Pallab Ghosh reports, if the new technique works, the gene therapy could transform the lives of thousands of people in years to come.

[link to video]

 

Daily MailScientists use pioneering gene therapy in bid to save man's sight

(28 October 2011)

A British man has been given a world-first gene treatment that could save his sight and one day prevent millions from going blind.

Jonathan Wyatt suffers from a hereditary condition which leaves most sufferers completely blind by their 40s.

Known as choroideremia, it is caused by a missing gene, and results in sight deteriorating from childhood. Until now it has been considered incurable.

[...] In a groundbreaking trial led by Oxford University, he became the first person in the world to undergo the treatment, and had ten billion copies of the missing gene injected into his left eye on Monday.

The procedure is not expected to reverse any damage, but a single jab could be enough to stop the disease in its tracks. It will be two years before it is clear if the treatment worked. If it has, Mr Wyatt’s right eye will also be treated.

[...] Oxford University eye surgeon Robert MacLaren said: ‘This disease has been recognised as an incurable form of blindness since it was first described over 100 years ago.

‘I cannot describe the excitement in thinking we have designed a genetic treatment that could potentially stop it in its tracks with one single injection.’

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsGene therapy used in a bid to save a man's sight

(27 October 2011)

Researchers in Oxford have treated a man with an advanced gene therapy technique to prevent him from losing his sight.

It is the first time that anyone has tried to correct a genetic defect in the light-sensing cells that line the back of the eye.

[...] Mr Wyatt is the first of 12 patients undergoing this experimental technique over the next two years at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

His doctor, Prof Robert MacLaren, believes that he'll know for sure whether the degeneration in Mr Wyatt's eye has stopped within two years. If that's the case his vision will be saved indefinitely.

"If this works with then we would want to go in and treat patients at a much earlier stage in childhood, effectively where they still have normal vision and can do normal things to prevent them from losing sight.

Prof MacLaren believes that if this gene therapy works it could be used to treat a wide variety of eye disorders, including the most common form of blindness in the elderly, macular degeneration.

"That is a genetic disease and I have no personal doubt in future that there will be a genetic treatment for it," he says.

[link to full text and video]   [link to video]

 

TDTNew gene treatment for blindness trialled in Britain

(27 October 2011)

A pioneering new treatment that uses DNA to correct a hereditary and incurable form of blindness has been performed for the first time in a British hospital.

The landmark procedure is aimed at stopping the progression of a genetic disorder which sets in during childhood and slowly leads to total blindness.

It marks the first attempt by scientists to combat the effects of choroideraemia, a condition caused by a missing gene in the light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye.

Oxford University researchers carried out the trial on Jonathan Wyatt, an arbitration lawyer from Bristol, at Oxford Eye Hospital on Monday.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, who led the trial, said: "If this works with Jonathan then we would want to go in and treat patients at a much earlier stage in childhood, effectively where they still have normal vision and can do normal things to prevent them from losing sight.

"The photoreceptors have always been the final frontier for gene therapy in the eye.

"I cannot describe the excitement in thinking that we have designed a genetic treatment that could potentially stop [the disease] in its tracks with one single injection."

[link to full text]

 

Irish ExaminerParticipants sought for bionic eye testing

(20 December 2010)

Recruitment has begun for the first UK trial of a bionic eye which can restore sight to blind people.

The microchip implant has been tested in Germany, where it allowed patients to read letters and recognise objects.

Surgeons at King's College Hospital, London, are now preparing for a follow-up study in the UK. They hope to select six patients for the trial, due to get under way in March. Another six patients will be treated at Oxford Eye Hospital.

The device, made by German technology company Retina Implant AG, fits under the retina and works like a digital film camera. A 3mm sq array of 1,500 light sensors sends pulsed electrical signals to adjoining nerve cells, which relay the messages to the brain.

The implant is designed to help patients with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disorder which gradually destroys the retina. One in 3,000 people in the UK have the disease, some of whom can be blind by the age of 30.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, from Oxford University, will be in charge of the Oxford arm of the trial.

[link to full text]

 

Daily MailThe amazing bionic eye that lets the blind see with the help of a microchip

(5 November 2010)

A 46-year-old man thought he would never see again after a devastating eye disease robbed him of his  sight.

Yet these amazing pictures show the moment Miikka Terho was able to identify a banana placed before him and spell out his name after he was fitted with a revolutionary microchip.

The implant is placed at the back of the eye allowing men and women who thought they would never be able to see again to read the hands of a clock and identify everyday objects.

First to benefit will be people with retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary disease that gradually destroys the light-sensitive retina at the back of the eye leading to total blindness.

[...] Robert MacLaren, an Oxford University professor of ophthalmology, said: ‘Now when I discuss eye disease with patients, I can, at least in some cases, hold out some hope. For a patient, it will make it easier to deal with the somewhat appalling prognosis that they are going to lose their sight.’

The device, the brainchild of German firm Retina Implant AG, consists of a very thin microchip, just 3mm by 3mm in size and packed with 1,500 light sensors designed to replace those in the retina lost to disease.

Although bionic eyes have been piloted before, this battery-powered implant is the first not to require cumbersome accessories such as a camera mounted on dark glasses.

[link to full text]

 

Financial TimesRetina Implant hopes to launch sight chip

(4 November 2010)

A German company that has developed an electrical chip allowing blind people to partially recover their vision hopes to commercialise its device as soon as the end of next year.

Walter Wrobel, chief executive of Retina Implant, based in Reutlingen, said he planned to seek authorisation for a CE mark during 2011 that would allow the chip to be approved across the EU as a medical device.

The launch – following 15 years of research – would offer fresh hope initially to an estimated 11,000 people across the industrialised world each year who develop retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition that leads to deterioration of the light sensitive cells in the retina.

It could also have potential applications for many more people who develop age-related macular degeneration, which also causes loss of vision, but not the still larger numbers with glaucoma, cataracts or diabetic retinopathy, which causes damage beyond the photo-receptors of the retina.

[...] Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who is to run a clinical trial next year with the chip in conjunction with colleagues at King’s College, London, said: “In our field, this is pretty much as good as it gets. The technology is absolutely amazing. Medical innovation can take a long time to develop but when it does, it can make a real difference to real lives.”

[link to full text]

 

CNNPioneering surgery helping blind to see

(3 November 2010)

London, England (CNN) -- Second phase trials have started across Europe into pioneering eye surgery that allows some blind people to see.

The technology is the result of 15 years' work by researchers at the University of Tuebingen in Germany led by professor Eberhart Zrenner.

"I think we are like the Brothers Wright when they had the first airplane. ... They proved that flying is possible. We have found that the electronic transmission of images is possible," Zrenner told CNN.

The procedure is unique in that it involves implanting a chip underneath the retina that transforms images into electrical impulses, which then are sent to the brain. Other research under way elsewhere involves the use of cameras and processing units outside the body.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren of the University of Oxford describes the success of the first clinical trial as a "significant advance" in the technology. He is due to take part in the second phase of the trial in the UK.

"One previously blind patient was able to read his own name with the implant switched on. Up until now, this concept would have been considered only in the realms of science fiction," he said in a statement.

[link to full text]

 

AljazeeraEye implant helps blind to see

(3 November 2010)

Scientists in Germany have developed an eye implant that allowed three blind patients to see shapes and objects in a breakthrough that could revolutionise eyesight treatment.

Experts have said the device could eventually change the lives of up to 200,000 people who suffer a form of inherited blindness called retinitis pigmentosa.

[...] Robert MacLaren, a professor of ophthalmology at Britain's Oxford University said the findings were "very exciting".

"It proves the concept that in a patient who has been blind for many years and is unable to see anything, the optic nerves can be re-awakened for them to be able to see again," MacLaren, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters.

"To go from being completely blind for many years, to being able to read a few letters and see shapes is an amazing step."

[link to full text]

 

ReutersRetinal implant trial helps blind people see shapes

(3 November 2010)

Scientists have developed an eye implant that allowed three blind patients to see shapes and objects within days of treatment in a trial and say the device could become routine for some kinds of blindness in five years.

Experts described the study results as phenomenal and said the device, developed by German researchers, could eventually change the lives of up to 200,000 people worldwide who suffer from blindness due to a degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa.

The device – known as a sub-retinal implant – sits underneath the retina and works by directly replacing light receptors that are lost as a result of the disease.

After the light detection stage, it uses the eye’s natural image-processing functions to produce a stable visual image.

[...] Robert Maclaren, a professor of Ophthalmology at Britain’s Oxford University and a consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital, who was not involved in this trial, said he was “very excited” by Zrenner’s results.

“It proves the concept that in a patient who has been blind for many years and is unable to see anything, the optic nerves can be re-awakened for them to be able to see again. It’s of phenomenal significance in that regard,” he told Reuters.

“To go from being completely blind for many years, to being able to read a few letters and see shapes is an amazing step.”

[link to full text]

 

TDTEye implant allows the blind to see again

(3 November 2010)

An eye implant which has returned partial sight to three blind patients has been developed by scientists.

The device is being hailed as an "unprecedented advance" in visual aids, and could revolutionise the lives of 200,000 people who suffer from the degenerative eye condition retinitis pigmentosa.

The hereditary disease means that light receptors in the eye cease to function, impairing vision.

But scientists working for firm Retinal Implant AG along with the Institute for Ophthalmic Research at the University of Tuebingen, southern Germany, say the implant can help reverse the effects.

The three patients tests in Germany were able to see shapes and objects within days of the implant being installed.

[...] Professor Robert MacLaren, of Oxford University, who will carry out trials in Britain next year, said: "This is quite a breakthrough. It is akin to someone paralysed with a spinal injury standing up and walking."

[link to full text]

 

The TimesPioneering implant surgery could cure age-related blindness

(3 November 2010)

Eye surgeons have restored the sight of three people using artificial retinal implants. The three, who were unable to see more than a flicker, were able to read large print, recognise objects and tell the time after the surgery.

The pioneering operation, carried out in Germany, represents the first cure for blindness caused by degeneration of the retina, which includes retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and macular degeneration.

The second phase of the trial, which will include 12 British patients who will be treated at the Oxford Eye Hospital and King’s College Hospital in London, is scheduled to begin early next year. Fifteen thousand Britons suffer from RP, for which there is currently no cure, and one in 50 people over the age of 50 suffer from age-related macular degeneration.

“For years I’ve been telling these patients that there’s nothing we can do for them to bring their sight back,” said Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmologist at the University of Oxford and a consultant surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital. “I’m now, happily, eating my words. This is a huge step forward.”

[link to full text]

 

The GuardianVision chip restores sight to blind man

(3 November 2010)

A man left blind by a devastating eye disease has been able to read letters, tell the time and identify a cup and saucer on a table after surgeons fitted him with an electronic chip to restore his vision.

Miikka Terho, 46, began losing his eyesight as a teenager and was completely blind when he joined a pilot study to test the experimental eye chip at the University of Tübingen in Germany.

Terho was one of three patients who had the chip inserted under part of the retina called the macula, where the highest concentration of light-sensitive cells are found. Terho performed particularly well after the implant.

British teams led by consultant retinal surgeons Robert MacLaren at Oxford eye hospital and Tim Jackson at King's College hospital will implant the chip into the first UK patients in a multicentre trial starting early next year.

"The visual results they were able to achieve were, up until now, thought to be in the realms of science fiction," said MacLaren. "There are still, however, many questions as scientists we look forward to answering."

[link to full text]

 

The IndependentPioneering retina chip helps blind patients see

(3 November 2010)

Revolutionary surgery has helped three blind patients to see again, following the implantation of an artificial retina in an operation which brings hope to thousands of people who have lost their sight.

The two men and a woman could distinguish shapes and objects days after the experimental treatment which involved placing an electronic chip at the back of the eye.

[...] The three patients were among 11 in the trial who had been blind for at least five years, after losing their sight due to a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition that destroys the retina and which affects an estimated 20,000 people in the UK. The trial was carried out in Germany using a device made by Retinal Implant. Following its success, a UK trial is to follow next year involving six to 12 patients who will be treated at the Oxford Eye Hospital and Kings College Hospital, London.

Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who will lead the UK trial, said yesterday: "This represents a major advance in this technology. One previously blind patient was able to read his own name. Until now this would have been considered only in the realms of science fiction. The device is implanted under the retina and it stimulates the retinal nerves in exactly the same way as they would be in a normal person. The eye moves around naturally. An image is formed from the implant in exactly the same way as it would have been before."

[link to full text]

 

Daily MirrorMiracle eye implant gives blind man vision

(3 November 2010)

A blind man has had his sight restored thanks to a revolutionary eye implant, giving hope to thousands of other sufferers.

Miikka Terho can now find a knife and fork on a table, check the hands on a clock, read his own name and find people in a room. The 46-year-old Finn had the electronic device placed under his retina. It replaces light receptors lost in retinal degeneration and stimulates the eye's image processing. Miikka, who suffered retinitis pigmentosa and was completely blind, said: "It is amazing."

He was one of 11 people to have the device fitted during a trial in Germany. Three were able to see shapes and objects within days. The microchip, connected to a tiny power supply behind the ear, could be a major boost for the 200,000 blinded by retinitis pigmentosa.

A UK trial is due to take place in Oxford next year. Chief researcher Professor Robert MacLaren said: "We should be very excited. This study has shown electrical circuits in the eye can be reawakened by an electrical device many years after the patients go completely blind."

[link to full text]

 

Daily ExpressMiracle eye implant restores sight to blind

(3 November 2010)

A MAN who was totally blind can now read letters of the alphabet and the time on a clock face with a microchip implanted in his eye, it was revealed yesterday.

Experts said hopes of such a leap forward had previously existed “only in the realm of science fiction”.

But now researchers have shown it is possible to restore vision lost to disease with an electronic eye.

The study, by a team in Germany, will offer hope to the 25,000 Britons who are told they will go blind due to an inherited condition known as retinitis pigmentosa.

[...] The new study reveals that three patients have been able to see grainy images of objects and recognise shapes after having the device fitted.

[...] Prof Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at Oxford University, will conduct the next trial.

He said: “This is a big breakthrough, no two ways about it. To take someone who is blind and help them see again is pretty incredible.” He added: “The successful testing of this electronic implant in Germany is without doubt a truly significant advance.

“One previously blind patient was able to read his own name with the implant switched on. Until now, this concept would have been considered only in the realms of science fiction.”

[link to full text]

 

SAVision Quest: Retinal Implants Deliver the Promise of Sight to Damaged Eyes

(15 June 2010)

Scientists have been working for decades to create an optical prosthesis that restores at least partial vision to those suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration and other retina-damaging diseases. Some retinal implants have begun to deliver on that promise, but the challenge remains for researchers to develop a technology that, in addition to providing clear images, can be worn comfortably over the long term.

[...] "The major advance of the subretinal approach is that the implant itself is light sensitive," says Robert MacLaren, a consultant vitreoretinal surgeon and professor of ophthalmology at University of Oxford's Merton College. MacLaren, who specializes in treating patients with AMD, retinitis pigmentosa, choroideremia and Stargardt disease, is the lead surgeon for Retina Implant's second clinical trial in the U.K. The trials will also be conducted in Germany, Hungary and Italy.

MacLaren likes the idea of placing the implant beneath the retina, where it can stimulate the retina's bipolar cells, which transmit signals from photoreceptors to ganglion cells. "Another advantage is that the implant is placed in the preferred location for stimulating the eye's photoreceptors," he says. "The fact that it's light sensitive simplifies the arrangement, although the actual surgery is still very complicated."

One of the difficulties designing a subretinal implant has been powering the device. Some researchers were hoping to tap light coming into the retina but they found the amount of energy inadequate, according to MacLaren. "This idea of a subretinal implant has been around since the 1970s," he adds. "But it hasn't been proved functional in a trial until Retina Implant did it."

[link to full text]

 

BBC NewsBionic eye to get long-term trial in Oxford

(25 March 2010)

Scientists at Oxford University have announced the first long-term trial of a new eye implant.

Six patients will get the retinal implant for 12 months. Previous UK trials were limited to three months.

The technology consists of electrodes that replace the retina at the back of the eye and can treat the degenerative disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

It is thought 200,000 people worldwide have RP. The trial will start at the John Radcliffe hospital from May.

Professor Robert MacLaren, Oxford University Nuffield Laboratory of Opthalmology, will lead the trial.

He said: "Recent work ... is very impressive indeed and I would now certainly consider this technology as a viable treatment option for patients blind from RP."

[link to full text]