A CURE FOR DISEASE THAT ROBS THOUSANDS OF SIGHT
World-first treatment by UK scientists
A POTENTIAL cure for the most common cause of blindness was unveiled by UK doctors yesterday. The pioneering treatment restored sight to patients who could see only a blur. It will give hope to 600,000 Britons with age- related macular degeneration and millions more sufferers worldwide. The technique involves inserting a patch of stem cells into the eye to repair damage to the retina.
The vision of two patients given the treatment is still improving more than two years later.
Both can read again after barely being able to see a word. It is the
first time the patch approach has succeeded in humans.
‘This study represents real progress in regenerative medicine and opens the door on new treatment options for people with age-related macular degeneration,’ said Pete Coffey, a University College London professor who was part of the research project.
‘We hope this will lead to an affordable offthe-shelf therapy that could be made available to NHS patients within five years.’
The two patients whose sight was restored both have the ‘wet’ form of macular degeneration in which leaky blood vessels destroy the centre of the retina.
Without treatment vision progressively worsens, ending in total blindness. The researchers say that their treatment could also be used for the dry form of the disease, which is caused by a build-up of deposits in the retina.
The study was a partnership between Moorfields Eye Hospital, the UCL institute of ophthalmology and the National Institute for Health Research.
‘The results suggest that this new therapeutic approach is safe and provides good visual outcomes,’ said Professor Lyndon da Cruz, a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields. ‘The patients who received the treatment had very severe macular degeneration and their improved vision will go some way to enhance their quality of life.
‘We recognise that this is a small group of patients, but we hope that what we have learned from this study will benefit many more in the future.’
The number of macular degeneration sufferers in the UK is expected to triple in the next 25 years as the population ages. There is no treatment for the dry form of the condition, which accounts for 90 per cent of cases.
The new study investigated whether the diseased cells at the back of the patients’ affected eyes could be replenished using a stem cell patch. A special surgical tool was used to insert the patch under the retina in the eye of each patient in an operation lasting up to two hours.
The patients went from not being able to read at all, even with glasses, to reading 60 to 80 words a minute with normal spectacles. They were monitored for 12 months and reported the improvements to their vision. The eye is considered an ideal place to test out stem cells. They can be monitored easily and removed if, for example, they run out of control.
The embryonic stem cells used in the treatment are taken from a human embryo. They are transformed into ‘retinal pigment epithelium’ cells that act as a ‘support system’, taking away waste products.
Dr Carmel Toomes, an associate professor at Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, said: ‘What’s exciting about this study is that the patients recorded an increase in vision. Patients with very poor vision are chosen for phase 1 trials because of their untested nature.
‘To see an improvement is a good sign that this therapy may help patients in the future, although further studies are needed before real conclusions can be drawn.
‘These results give the many patients out there who suffer from age-related macular degeneration and other retinal degenerations real hope that stem cells replacement therapy may be a reality in the near future.
‘While this is only a very early clinical trial, the results are positive and show the technology is moving in the right direction.’
John Hunt, a medical technology professor at Nottingham Trent University, said: ‘We should learn a great deal from this study in the longer term, let’s hope that it is all positive and helps us take massive steps forward toward demonstrating the clinical efficacy of cellular therapies to address many others of our pressing clinically unmet needs.’
Douglas Waters, an 86-year-old from Croydon in south London, was given the treatment in October 2015.
He said yesterday: ‘In the months before the operation my sight was really poor and I couldn’t see anything out of my right eye.
‘I was struggling to see things clearly, even when up-close. After the surgery my eyesight improved to the point where I can now read the newspaper and help my wife Freda out with the gardening. It’s brilliant what the team have done and I feel so lucky to have been given my sight back.’
Only one diseased eye was operated on in each patient. The study was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.