A type of gene therapy based on Nobel prize-winning science is safe and can partly restore sight in blind people, researchers have revealed.<\/p>\n
The approach, known as optogenetic therapy, harnesses the technique for turning nerve cells on and off using light that scooped the 2026 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine.<\/a><\/p>\n It was first shown to partly restore vision in a single blind person in 2021<\/a>. Now researchers have reported the results from a larger trial involving the original patient and a further nine people.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we can say for sure is that the concept of optogenetics is valid for vision restoration,\u201d said Prof Botond Roska, director of the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel and a lead author of the study.<\/p>\n Roska added the aim is now to work towards restoring high-resolution vision, with the hope of achieving the goal in five to 10 years.<\/p>\n All 10 of the trial participants had advanced retinitis pigmentosa \u2013 a group of genetic disorders thought to affect more than 1.5 million people worldwide.<\/p>\n In these disorders, light-sensitive cells in the retina gradually lose their function. However, ganglion cells in the retina, which send visual information to the brain, deteriorate less quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cThese cells are not the primary cells targeted by the disease, so that\u2019s why they are good candidates for the therapy,\u201d said Dr Jos\u00e9-Alain Sahel, another lead author of the study from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in the US.<\/p>\n The gene therapy involves giving a single injection into the eye. This injection contains a harmless, synthethic virus that delivers the genetic instructions for producing a light-sensitive protein into a ring of surviving ganglion cells. As a result, these cells are made light-sensitive.<\/p>\n Each patient then receives a pair of light-stimulating goggles. These capture images of the world around the patient and convert them into pulses of light of a single wavelength These pulses activate the ganglion cells that have been made light-sensitive, allowing the wearer to perceive a monochrome image.<\/p>\n Crucially, the technique does not depend on the exact genetic cause of the patient\u2019s sight loss.<\/p>\n