Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Researchers funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) have reversed congenital blindness in mice by changing supportive cells in the retina called Müller glia into rod photoreceptors. The findings advance efforts toward regenerative therapies for blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. A report of the findings appears online today in Nature. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.
"This is the first report of scientists reprogramming Müller glia to become functional rod photoreceptors in the mammalian retina," said Thomas N. Greenwell, Ph.D., NEI program director for retinal neuroscience. "Rods allow us to see in low light, but they may also help preserve cone photoreceptors, which are important for color vision and high visual acuity. Cones tend to die in later-stage eye diseases. If rods can be regenerated from inside the eye, this might be a strategy for treating diseases of the eye that affect photoreceptors."
Photoreceptors are light-sensitive cells in the retina in the back of the eye that signal the brain when activated. In mammals, including mice and humans, photoreceptors fail to regenerate on their own. Like most neurons, once mature they don't divide.
-- submitted from IRC
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Macular degeneration trial will be first human test of Nobel-winning stem cell technique
Curing [...] age-related macular degeneration [(AMD)], a major cause of blindness [...] was supposed to be low-hanging fruit.
The cause of AMD is well-known, the recipe for turning stem cells into retinal cells works like a charm, and the eye is "immunoprivileged," meaning immune cells don't attack foreigners such as, say, lab-made retinal cells. Yet more than a decade after animal studies showed promise, and nearly eight years since retinal cells created from embryonic stem cells were safely transplanted into nine patients in a clinical trial, no one outside of a research setting (or a rogue clinic) is getting stem cell therapy for macular degeneration.
That may change soon. Researchers in California expect to launch a Phase 2 clinical trial of stem cell therapy for age-related macular degeneration this year, while a team from the National Institutes of Health is not far behind: It is planning the first study in humans using what are called induced pluripotent stem cells, which were discovered 12 years ago and won a 2012 Nobel Prize. These cells (iPSCs, for short) are made by sending plain old adult cells back in time, biologically, until they're like embryonic stem cells — but without the ethical baggage those cells carry.
"This will be the first such study for iPSCs for any disease indication worldwide," said Kapil Bharti of the NIH's National Eye Institute. "When iPSCs were discovered in 2007, there was a lot of hype that we could easily turn them into therapies. But there were many unanswered questions" about how to safely make transplantable cells, questions that are only now being answered. "I hope this reignites the field," Bharti said.
He and NEI [National Eye Institute] colleagues reported in Science Translational Medicine [DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aat5580] [DX] on Wednesday that they had used retinal cells created from human iPSCs to treat a form of macular degeneration in rats and pigs, with results promising enough that they hope to start recruiting macular degeneration patients for a clinical trial in the next few weeks. That sets up a face-off between two forms of stem cells. In their trial, scientists at the University of Southern California are starting with stem cells derived from human embryos.
Related: Stem Cell Therapy for Macular Degeneration: Conflicting Reports
Congenital Blindness Reversed in Mice
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @04:49AM (3 children)
Does anyone think actual scientists would disseminate real discoveries this way?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by janrinok on Tuesday August 21 2018, @05:50AM (2 children)
Unfortunately, yes, I do. Do I think that the scientists are getting your $200, no, certainly not.
If you find a free source of the study please post a link in a comment. Thank you.
(Score: 0, Touché) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 21 2018, @07:15AM (1 child)
Note: all attempts to reverse congenital blindness in janrinok has failed thus far. Future attempts seem to be also pointless. Perhaps working on cognitive neural functions, such as understanding, pattern recognition, and the acceptance of aristarchus submissions are in order, in place of the mindless STEM based focus on vision as the source of all knowledge?
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @10:04AM
Don't give up, folks. Send your $200 contribution to the 'Cure janrinok of congenital blindness to aristarchus submission' research fund. We can make it happen together.
#freearistarchus
(Score: 2) by datapharmer on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:35AM (2 children)
So this makes me wonder: if this can be used to improve sight by generating rods, is there anything stopping them from making it significantly better than average by making extra rods?
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday August 21 2018, @02:44PM (1 child)
Indeed. Sight into the IR spectrum beyond the normal human might even be possible.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday August 21 2018, @04:19PM
That would seem inconvenient at best, unless you could easily switch your vision back and forth.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"