LATEST TREATMENT FOR EYE BLINDNESS

By R.C. Dohare B.E.(mech),PGDCSc, M.E.(Env.Sc.& Eng)

Introduction: - The blindness is the biggest curse of life. The pain, incapability is
make the person life worse, more over individual depend on others for whole life. It is
very important to develop technology to restore the eyesight, without surgical
operation, eye transplantation etc It is always better to prevent diseases then to cure.
Most of the eye problems because of vitamin A. deficiency.
Stem-Cell-Coated Contact Lenses Are Curing the Blind
Regeneration of damaged tissues due to corneal disease begins in as few as two weeks

Contact Lens Cover: Sanjay Acharya

Researchers in Australia have come up with an outwardly simple but incredibly ingenious
way of curing blindness caused by corneal damage: Take everyday contact lenses, already
used by millions (including me), and infuse them with a patient's own stem cells. After
wearing them for about 2 weeks, test subjects reported a seemingly miraculous
restoration of sight. Is it that easy?

Most of the patients had only lost vision in one eye, so stem cells were harvested from
their good eye and then plated onto contact lenses. After letting the stem cells repair
damaged tissues, 2 of the 3 patients went from legally blind to being able to read some of
an eye chart. The third patient actually regained enough sight to pass a driving exam.
Researchers are still monitoring the stability of the treatment, but the results seem
promising, if not mind blowing.
So far they’ve only targeted corneal damage, which is estimated to be the cause of sight
loss in about 1.5 million people every year. The simplicity and relatively low cost of the
procedure could make it available in more impoverished areas. Even a congenital defect
in both eyes, aniridia, was cured using stem cells taken from a different part of the eye.
Once the process is perfected and tested extensively, researchers think in the future they
can use it to cure blindness that afflicts other parts of the eye. While they haven’t
mentioned curing regular near- or far-sightedness, I’m waiting for my own stem cell-
laced contacts to cure my –4.0 crud eyesight without having to go under the laser!
Still, amazing stuff. For even more ways stem cells are changing the game, see our
Essential Guide to Stem Cells from the June 2009 issue.

For Treating Blindness, Scientists Look to Algae

Cloning the green goo's factories for producing light-sensitive proteins could lead
to more effective treatments for certain types of blindness
Chlamydomonas Close-Up: Light-sensitive proteins found in unicellular algae
from the genus Chlamydomonas may help counteract the effects of certain types
of blindness. the Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility/Dartmouth College

What if the key to curing blindness was found in unicellular algae?

In a recent study published in the journal Nature, a group of scientists were able
to restore light sensitivity to formerly blind mice using a protein extracted from
algaes of the genus Chlamydomonas. The Chlamydomonas are of particular
interest because they exhibit phototaxis—an ability to orient themselves toward
light sources to aid in photosynthesis. Eager to understand what caused this
phenomenon on a genetic level, scientists at the Max Planck institute in 2003
isolated a sequence of genes that stored the blueprints for generating light-
sensitive proteins. And now, a joint team of researchers from the Friedrich
Miescher Institute in Switzerland and the Harvard Medical School have recently
developed a therapy that introduces these genes into the eyes of blind mice.
What they observed was a dramatic behavioral change that proved the mice had
regained their sensitivity to light.

Dr. Botond Roska, leader of the Friedrich Miescher Institute team, has a clever
analogy for putting his research into perspective: "Imagine giving a speech to a
large room of people, but only the first row can hear you," he says. The first row
he’s referring to is the eye’s outer layer of rods and cones, the light-sensing cells
that line the back of the retina and are the first step in a complex cascade of cells
that pass information from the eye to the brain. It’s the job of this first row to pass
back what they "hear" to the row behind them. When this first layer of cell is
damaged beyond repair from such diseases as macular degeneration or retinitis
pigmentosa, the eye becomes blind, even though most of the complex cascading
mechanism is still functional. As Dr. Roska describes it, a blind eye is "like a
camera with the cap on."

Dr. Roska and his team decided to target the layer of cells below this first layer,
injecting the cloned algae genes in an attempt to "turn up the volume of the
speech" so that the second row could take up the slack left by a "deaf" first row
and pass on the message to the rest of the audience.
To see if the treatment actually worked, two groups of mice, one with sight and
one blind, were placed in dark cages for half an hour before the lights were
turned on. Once the lights were back, the sighted mice became active and ran
around their cage, while the blind mice stayed sedentary. When the mice treated
with the Chlamydomonas genes were put through the same test, they exhibited
levels of activity almost as high as the sighted mice, suggesting that they could
tell the different between light and dark.

Then it was necessary to test the sensitivity of the mice’s newly restored vision—
whether they could only detect changes in light intensity or actually discern
shapes. To do this, the mice were placed in front of what must have been an
adorable, mouse-sized movie screen and made to watch a series of lines of
various widths move across the screen. The treated mice were observed to
follow the lines, showing that they could indeed make out shapes. Most
surprisingly, these mice would follow a line that was as fine as twice the width of
the lines that a normal mouse would follow.

The next step for Dr. Roska and his team is to attempt to restore functionality to a
wider range of light receptors. In a healthy eye, full vision is an average of the
data recorded by cells that measure increasing intensity as well as a second type
that measure decreasing intensity, named "ON" and "OFF" respectively. The
Chlamydomonas gene works on the "ON" cells only, but it is thought that a
protein from a separate microorganism might eventually restore "OFF" cells.

As amazing as these results are, it may be a while before the treatment can be
applied to humans. The greatest challenge is posed by the therapy only being
effective for very high intensities of light. In the complex human eye, there are as
many as 40 separate genes that that account for our ability to adapt to many
different light levels. The trick would be to find more sensitive gene tags for
varying levels of light, or even to develop special goggles to help focus the light
like an automatic camera does.

However, Dr. Roska’s work is a promising development for a condition that for
many has seemed all but incurable in its finality.
Hope on the Horizon for Artificial Eyes

Restored vision might be in the future for the 3 million Americans who suffer from
blinding retinal damage.

Illustration by Garry Marshall: VISION OF THE FUTURE

Artificial ceramic cells that replace damaged rods and cones in the retina might
restore vision in some blind people. (1) 100,000 ceramic cells on a 1mm-square
polymer strip are implanted into the retina. The polymer dissolves. (2) Light falls
on the photocells, which creates a voltage differential. This triggers other cells in
the retina to relay the electrical signals to the brain, where they are interpreted as
vision. Illustration by Garry Marshall

Restored vision might be in the future for the 3 million Americans who suffer from
blinding retinal damage. Alex Ignatiev and his colleagues at Houston's Space
Vacuum Epitaxy Center have developed ceramic photocells to replace damaged
rods and cones-the millions of specialized cells in our eyes that convert light into
electrical impulses. These signals are then interpreted by the brain, allowing us
to see.

Other researchers have tried similar implants using silicon-based cells, but
because silicon is toxic, it must be insulated from the retina. The ceramic cells,
on the other hand, can be implanted without insulation and can communicate
directly with surrounding nerves.

Animal tests have shown that the operation is safe, but how well the implants
improve vision remains to be seen. If the procedure does work, Ignatiev expects
people who once had sight to respond better than people blind from birth.

So far, he has gotten more than 200 inquiries about participating in the first
human trials that are slated to take place early next year.
References
(1)By Dan Smith
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-06/curing-blindness-contact-lenses
(2)By Dan Smith
http://www.popsci.com/inspired-nature/article/2008-05/treating-blindness-scientists-
look-algae
(3)By Harald Franzen
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2002-04/hope-horizon-artificial-eyes