UK: New breakthrough in curing blindness

(Baonghean.vn) - Professor Pete Coffey of the University of London is pioneering a new therapy to prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and restore vision to the blind through the London Restoring Light project.

Professor Pete Coffey - Head of the London Project Restoring Light.

Professor Coffey has spent the past eight years researching and developing his treatment. On August 11, 2015, the first patient was treated with this innovative therapy.

The patient was a 60-year-old woman with advanced AMD. Blood vessels in the back of her eye had ruptured, flooding the retina with blood and rapidly destroying her vision.

Surgeons at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London implanted a thin layer of polyester just 3mm wide into the cells behind the retina of each eye.

They used stem cells to regenerate the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) - the part of the cell that had been destroyed in the patient and is the main cause of blindness.

“Regeneration is absolutely possible. You can put artificial RPE cells in the eye and restore vision to the patient,” Coffey said. “I hope they will soon regain their sight and see their family again.”

However, it took six months for doctors at Moorfields Hospital to officially declare the surgery a success.

“We are re-evaluating our surgery and need more information to conclude,” Coffey said. “I am amazed that the artificial cells have adapted to the patient so far.”

The next nine patients will be treated with this new method. If successful, Professor Coffey hopes that RPE replacement surgeries will become as common as cataract surgeries, ending the suffering of millions of patients with blindness./.

Thanh Hien

(According to CNN)