Blind people may regain their sight thanks to a light sensitive gene taken from algae.
Chemists believe they may be able to replace damaged cells in the retina with similar ones found in algae.
The technique has worked in mice and now scientists believe they can begin human trials within two years.
“The idea is to develop a treatment for blindness,” Alan Horsager at the University of Southern California, the Telegraph reports.
Algae are non-parasitic plants without roots, stems or leaves. They contain chlorophyll and vary in size from microscopic forms to massive seaweeds, living in fresh or salt water or moist places. Some serve as food source.
Algae
More than a million people in Britain suffer from vision problems caused by a damaged or malfunctioning retinas.
The retina is the “business end” of the eye, where nerve cells convert light into electrical and chemical signals that are sent to the brain down the optic nerve.
Algae need to be sensitive to light so they can seek out sunlight for photosynthesis and it is the cells they use to do this that scientists hope to use to replenish damaged equivalents in the human eye.
It involves injecting the gene into the retina. Early tests showed that blind mice were able to see light again after treatment and that the effect appears to be permanent.
“It’s good on paper, and it is clear they are heading for a clinical trial with the information they are gathering,” said Pete Coffey, at University College London.
“The question is how good is it going to be? Just light/dark or are people going to be able to read large texts.”
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Therapies to reverse blindness caused by common retinal diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa could soon be on the anvil, thanks to cutting-edge stem cell technology developed to correct a genetic defect present in a rare blinding disorder.
A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison used a recently developed technology to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from a human patient with an uncommon inherited eye disease known as gyrate atrophy.
This disorder affects retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, the cells critical to the support of the retina”s photoreceptor cells, which function in the transmission of messages from the retina to parts of the brain that interpret images.
“When we generate iPS cells, correct the gene defect that is responsible for this disease, and guide these stem cells to become RPE cells, these RPE cells functioned normally,” said lead study author cell biologist Jason Meyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
“This is exciting because it demonstrates we can fix something that is out of order. It also supports our belief that in the future, one might be able to use this approach for replacement of cells lost or malfunctioning due to other more common diseases of the retina,” she added.
Researchers are hopeful that once the gene defect responsible for a blinding disorder is corrected in iPS cells, these cells may be able to restore vision.
The study appeared in an online publication of the journal Stem Cells.