Two
new startup companies have announced they will begin clinical trials of
high-tech goggles that, when combined with the emerging technology of
optogenetics, may have the capacity to restore sight to some individuals.
According
to a report in the MIT Technology Review
[link], researchers hope the combination of wearable electronics and gene
therapy may restore vision by re-creating the retina’s ability to sense light.
GenSight Biologics of Paris [link] and Bionic Sight, based at of Weill Cornell
Medical College in New York, will soon begin testing patients who have the degenerative
eye retinitis pigmentosa, a condition which destroys photoreceptors, the light-sensing
cells in the retina. If successful, te approach could lead to treatment of
other types of retinal diseases that involves the loss of photoreceptors.
Optogenetics
is a type of gene therapy that bypasses damaged photoreceptors and stimulates other
kinds of retinal cells so that they become sensitive to light. The visor-like goggles
are used to beam high-intensity light into the eye causing the modified cell stimulation.
The
goggles, developed by The Institut de la Vision in Paris [link], include a
camera, a mircro processor, and a digital micro mirror. The device converts the
images the camera captures into bright pulses of red light in order to
stimulate the modified cells.
This
combination of technologies has been successful tested in blind monkeys and
rats. Soon tests will begin with human volunteers.
Initial
tests of optogenetics began in 2016 by RetroSense Therapeutics, a company based
in Texas. In that study, a blind woman became first person to receive an
optogenetic treatment to help restore her vision. Four more patients are now enrolled
in the trials. No results have been reported yet.
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