For the first time, scientists managed to restore vision to blind mice (2 photos)

The vision problem affects a hugethe number of people, and age-related visual degradation will affect almost every inhabitant of the Earth. The technique, developed by scientists from the Nanoscope company, will help create a revolutionary technology that allows you to restore vision and successfully fight even complete blindness. Successful results in mice have earned the company a grant for human clinical trials from the US National Eye Institute. The first human clinical trials will be carried out by the end of 2020.

The Nanoscope technique is based on the use ofadvances in genetic engineering and a light-sensitive protein attached to the bipolar cells of the retina. One of the reasons for the loss of vision in humans, even when the eye and its neuronal system are completely healthy, is the damage and death of photoreceptors. Photoreceptors located on the outer part of the retina capture the light signal, transform it into a chemical signal, and send it to bipolar cells, which convert the received information into a neural signal.

It is the photoreceptors that are most often exposed toinjuries, diseases and suffer from age-related degradation. However, other neurons in the retina, including a class of cells called bipolar cells, remain intact. The researchers found a way to use bipolar cells to do some of the work instead of damaged photoreceptors. To do this, an artificial chemical signal is created, which is generated by proteins called opsins, which are built into the vision system behind the photoreceptors. To implement the technique in practice, we used the AAV2 carrier virus that delivers the MCO1 opsin activator gene to bipolar cells associated with damaged photoreceptors.

As a result of a single injection, photosensitivity is restored, without the appearance of pathology, which has been proven by testing on mice for six months.

Restoration of sensitivity to light in the blindmice have been proven by a number of special tests and the growth of animal activity. However, how well the treatment was carried out, and what exactly the mice are now seeing, scientists naturally cannot find out. Therefore, the next step will be to test the new technique on people with severe forms of vision disease.

Source: nei