“Doctors in Italy have restored a man’s sight using an innovative gene therapy. The treatment involved injecting a viral vector into the man’s eye to deliver a working copy of a missing gene, allowing retinal cells to produce the protein needed for vision,” reports The Doomslayer.
Euro News reports:
In a world first, a man suffering from vision loss in Italy has regained his sight thanks to an experimental gene therapy.
The 38-year-old has Usher syndrome type 1b, a rare genetic disorder that causes profound deafness from birth and a progressive loss of vision, leading to blindness.
The surgery took place in July 2024 at the ophthalmology clinic of the University of Campania in southern Italy. At the time, the patient had a visual capacity of less than a tenth, seeing the world as if he was looking at it through a keyhole.
A year later, the patient has recovered both his near and far sight, even in low-light conditions….”Before, everything was blurry, indistinct. Now I can go out at night alone, recognise colleagues, read subtitles on TV from afar, see the aisles of the warehouse where I work without stumbling,” the patient said. “It’s not just seeing better, it’s starting to live.”
The operation marks the first clinical demonstration of the effectiveness of the new gene therapy, which was developed by researchers at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine.
The operation involves injecting two separate viral vectors under the retina, each carrying half of the gene needed to produce the protein absent in Usher 1B patients.
“The operation takes place under general anesthesia, but recovery is rapid,” said [clinic director] Francesca Simonelli…”Already after a few days, an improvement is noticeable. At two weeks, the first patient could see better and at one month he was able to find his way even in the dark”.
A virus is being used to cure deafness in new gene therapy.
Another form of gene therapy was used to give hearing to a previously deaf toddler. “A British toddler has had her hearing restored after becoming the first person in the world to take part in a pioneering gene therapy trial, in a development that doctors say marks a new era in treating deafness. Opal Sandy was born unable to hear anything due to auditory neuropathy, a condition that disrupts nerve impulses traveling from the inner ear to the brain and can be caused by a faulty gene. But after receiving an infusion containing a working copy of the gene during groundbreaking surgery that took just 16 minutes, the 18-month-old can hear almost perfectly and enjoys playing with toy drums.”
A recently-developed gene therapy blocks the painful hereditary condition angiodema.
