A couple of cures for blindness and a new one enters human trials!

[thewayne]

This is pure awesome! I'm personally interested as I have a condition called epiretinal membrane that, if it gets seriously worse, will mean that I will no longer be able to see straight lines. Don't tell me that won't screw me up as a photographer! And I have no idea how that will affect my ability to read, and photography, reading, and watching movies are some of my major joys in life.

ANYWAY, this article from the BBC talks about a new gene therapy that just began human trials that, if successful, will STOP age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is a genetic condition that will ultimately result in blindness, this treatment involves injecting a virus into the back of the eye which (I guess) re-writes the bad gene and prevents it from doing its dirty deed. They're testing it on people already suffering from AMD, I guess so they can quantitatively see that it works by seeing that their vision doesn't get worse.

The article goes on to talk about two other causes of blindness that can be treated: something called choroideremia, a genetic problem which affects young men and eventually causes total blindness. They now have a genetic treatment for it. And a stem cell treatment for people where they can directly implant patches of stem cells in the eye and have restored vision in two people.

In my case, there is a treatment for epiretinal membrane, but it is extremely high risk: they literally scrape the unwanted membrane off the retina. Obviously the risk of physically damaging the retina is considerable, so it's not a recommended procedure, and I'm not remotely near that level. I'm about as early in the disease's progression as possible: they've detected it, I'm being monitored, and I'm not seeing any distortion of straight lines right now, so it'll be some time (we hope!) before it becomes a problem.

As if I don't have enough medical shit in my life to deal with! :-)

Comments

[dewline]

I may know someone else who might benefit from this research...

[thewayne]

Maybe the Canadian health services could spin-off a study with the Brit hospitals, they are named.  Good luck!

[acelightning]

My husband was recently diagnosed with the beginning stages of AMD. And he drives a limo for a living. So the doctor put him on some special vitamins that are supposed to help slow down the process. And the way I've adjusted my cooking since I had the heart failure and the stroke are also good for him - I'm cooking with high Omega 3 oils and pasture-fed butter and eggs, and lots of tofu, ginger, hot pepper, and watercress. But I'm very curious to see where the researchers at Oxford get with this new technique.

[thewayne]

I'm glad this is useful to you!  Do you use direct source Omega 3s, like line-caught salmon, over pills?  My understanding is that it's hugely better for you.  For me, I was barely in to my 50s when I had cataract surgery, but living at high altitude like we do will accelerate cataract development, increase blood pressure, and also cause thyroid problems - less atmosphere to filter you from solar radiation.

[acelightning]

I'm violently allergic (intolerant) of fish in any form, and I don't take omega3 in pills (I don't dare ingest fish even in capsules). I use canola oil and Chinese sesame oil for cooking, and I buy high-omega-3 eggs and butter from pastured cows. (I wish I could afford pasture-raised meat and poultry, but that's not happening any time soon.)

I had cataract surgery about 15 years ago, but the surgeon told me that it couldn't have had anything to do with using computers (nor with being exposed to RF while working in radio stations). He screwed up my right eye - he told me that "I had moved" during surgery, despite being immobilized with drugs and having my head in a clamp. But everything healed, and it was fine. But then about five years ago, I started getting a double image in my right eye, and it was painful. I went to a different eye doctor, who said that the implanted lens had torn loose, and there was a danger of it falling inside my eyeball, which would have required complicated and expensive surgery to fix. He repaired the problem without any further complications.

[thewayne]

My cataract surgery was 5 years ago, and the schmuck here is running a mill, cycling people through as fast as he can. He completely ignored me all three times when I complained of a lot of pain after going through the numbing process (had to have laser surgery for bubbles afterwards). That was insanely uncomfortable. I've never heard of people experiencing pain with cataract surgery - well, I did!

But the worst part was him wrecking my lifestyle by making me farsighted. I was perfectly content with wearing glasses all the time sincerely I'd been wearing them since the 5th grade, now I have to pull out these substandard quality reading glasses and it seems like I'm constantly taking them off or putting them on. It's Really screwed with my photography as I can't make many control changes without changing to my reading glasses.

I was never given an option to remain nearsighted, and I guess a lot of the blame falls on me for not doing enough research going in to it, but also on him for making assumptions and not giving me options.

I'm very glad they were able to fix your lens problem! I've never heard of such a thing, that sounds exceptionally scary (as most things eye-related frequently are).

[acelightning]

The guy who screwed up my original cataract surgery was running just such a mill. When I went to get it fixed, the doctor asked me who had done the original work, and I mentioned the name. The reaction was, "He's still in business, although I don't know why."

The plastic lenses that were put into both my eyes included a bunch of correction. I was horribly nearsighted all my life, and they would have had to give me Coke-bottle-bottom glasses again. But once I had the implants, I could, for the first time in more than 50 years, roll over in bed and look at the clock and read what time it was, without fumbling for my glasses. So I'm very pleased with my bionic eyeballs :-)