Retinal function, structure changes in proliferative diabetic retinopathy revealed

Patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) exhibit marked visual dysfunction and structural changes in both the inner and outer retinal layers, research findings indicate. Retinal function was evaluated using a number of tests, including contrast sensitivity, frequency doubling perimetry (FDP) and photostress testing. And semiautomatically segmented spectral-domain optical coherence tomography scans were used to quantify…

Gene Therapy Staves Off Blindness from Retinitis Pigmentosa in Canine Model

Gene therapy preserved vision in a study involving dogs with naturally occurring, late-stage retinitis pigmentosa, according to research funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The findings contribute to the groundwork needed to move gene therapy forward into clinical trials for people with the blinding eye disorder, for…

Scientists find a way to ‘shrink’ blind spot in human eye

The optic nerve that sends visual signals to the brain must pass through the retina which creates a hole in that light-sensitive layer of tissue. When images project to that precise location, we miss them. This blind spot can be ‘shrunk’ despite the fact that the hole in our visual field cannot be. The findings…

Proteomic Studies of Age-Related Ocular Diseases

A Cleveland Clinic lab has found evidence to support the theory that age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an inflammatory disease with varying ways to progress to advanced dry and wet AMD.  Focusing on proteomic studies to discover biomarkers and molecular mechanisms of AMD and glaucoma, John W. Crabb, PhD, and his colleagues found many proteins…

RetroSense Granted Orphan Drug Designation for Retinitis Pigmentosa

RetroSense Therapeutics, LLC, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation for the Company’s lead product RST-001 for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic condition which leads to the progressive degeneration of rod and cone photoreceptors (cells found in…

Lab-Grown Retina from Stem Cells Responds to Light

…stem cell researchers have struggled to coax the malleable cells to form the 10 layers of the retina. And, crucially, no one had, before now, produced lab-grown retinal cells that they demonstrated would respond to light.Researchers at Johns Hopkins pulled it off, they reported in a paper published recently in Nature Communications. They cultivated a…

Smartphones become ‘eye-phones’ with low-cost devices developed by ophthalmologists

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed two inexpensive adapters that enable a smartphone to capture high-quality images of the front and back of the eye. The adapters make it easy for anyone with minimal training to take a picture of the eye and share it securely with other health practitioners or…

First successful transplant of retinas made from embryonic stem cells

For the first time, scientists have successfully transplanted light-detecting cells in the retina, grown from embryonic stem cells, into mice–a feat that could advance similar therapies using the artificial cells to treat degenerative eye diseases toward human trials. The animal transplant is a huge step for embryonic stem cell-based therapies, which have moved slowly to…