Pingie: HTTP:: Gene Therapy Helps Improve Vision in Blind Children

HTTP:: Gene Therapy Helps Improve Vision in Blind Children
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In a new study published on Saturday, experts announce that they managed to stop the evolution of a dangerous eye disease in children by administering a single DNA shot into their eyes. The gene therapy proved so effective, that the four test subjects were able to walk without help from others in the end, which is very rare in Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA). In the case of this condition, sufferers start losing their vision from birth and are completely blind by the age of 40. There are currently about 3,000 people suffering from this disease in the United States alone, ScienceNow reports. In one form of the disease, LCA2, sufferers are born with an abnormality on a gene called RPE65, which usually plays an important role in the production of rhodopsin. This is a pigment that is invaluable to photoreceptor cells, as it represents the active chemical that allows vision cells to detect and process light, and then convert it into electrical signals and send it to the bra!
in. In the pigment's absence, the cells simply wither and die, which, over time, leads to total blindness. University of Pennsylvania (Penn State) researchers announced in 2001 that, by injecting a good copy of the RPE65 gene into the eyes of dogs suffering from LCA2, they were able to restore at least partial vision. A small saf...
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http://news.softpedia.com/news/Gene-Therapy-Helps-Improve-Vision-in-Blind-Children-125218.shtml
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