Surgeons working in Oxford have discovered a new gene therapy might be used to cure eyesight related illnesses and improve one's vision.
Professor Robert McLaren, the surgeon who led the research, created a new technique which involves inserting a gene into the patient's eye cells. The gene will then revive light-detecting cells which in turn, improves the eyesight of the patients.
Believing that the technique could be used to treat blindness, Prof. McLaren and his team are very happy with the outcome of their study. "We really couldn't have asked for a better result," he said to BBC.
BBC covered the trial for Prof. McLaren's technique two years ago. By then, the first patient to be administered with the new technique was Jonathan Wyatt, who was 63 years old at the time. Wyatt was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called choroideremia, a condition by which light detecting cells of the eye gradually dies one by one.
Before he was treated by Prof. McLaren, Wyatt is still able to see. When we underwent the operation, he hoped that his vision will improve and that the gene therapy will also stop the deterioration of the light-detecting cells of his eyes.
His expectations were met by the procedure and now, Wyatt reports not only an improvement of his vision but of his life in general.
Another patient who improved his vision using Prof. McLaren's gene therapy technique is Wayne Thomson. He thought that he would go blind and live the rest of his life in darkness before he underwent the operation; however, he immediately noticed improvement on his sight after the therapy.
"My colour vision improved. Trees and flowers seemed much more vivid and I was able to see stars for the first time since I was 17 when my vision began to deteriorate," Thomson shared to BBC.
According to Prof. McLaren, the effectiveness of his gene therapy to cure choroideremia, which commonly affects males, reflects that the same gene therapy technique could be used to treat other gene-related eyesight problems such as macular degeneration.
