Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
A team of researchers from Israel and the UK are looking to add to the number of medical devices that can be used to treat visual impairments by developing a new prosthetic unit for use by retinal degeneration patients.
Writing in a recent edition of the journal Nano Letters, researchers from the Tel Aviv University Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and the Newcastle University Institute of Neuroscience detail how their new device could help counter vision loss due to conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
While scientists are using different approaches to develop implants capable of detecting light and sending visual signals to a person’s brain, Yael Hanein of the TAU School of Electrical Engineering and colleagues set out to design a unit that was more compact and less cumbersome without sacrificing resolution, the American Chemical Society (ACS) explained in a statement.
“The researchers combined semiconductor nanorods and carbon nanotubes to create a wireless, light-sensitive, flexible film that could potentially act in the place of a damaged retina,” the ACS said. They then tried their new device out using tissue from laboratory animals and the results were positive.
“When they tested it with a chick retina that normally doesn’t respond to light, they found that the film absorbed light and, in response, sparked neuronal activity,” the society added. “In comparison with other technologies, the researchers conclude theirs is more durable, flexible and efficient, as well as better able to stimulate neurons.”
Image Above: This novel, flexible film that can react to light is a promising step toward an artificial retina. Credit: American Chemical Society
Other authors include Lilach Bareket, David Rand, Gur Lubin, Moshe David-Pur, Jacob Ben-Dov, Soumyendu Roy and Ori Cheshnovsky of Tel Aviv University; Nir Waiskopf and Uri Banin of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Cyril Eleftheriou and Evelyne Sernagor of Newcastle University. The Israel Ministry of Science and Technology, the European Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council funded the study.
This isn’t the first attempt to develop an artificial retina. In August 2012, researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College revealed that they had developed a device with the capability of restoring normal vision by deciphering the retina’s neural code for brain communication. The device, which could accommodate for blindness in mice, was hailed as the first of its kind and a major breakthrough in working to restore vision for the blind.
“It’s an exciting time,” Dr. Sheila Nirenberg, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and in the Institute for Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell, said in a statement at the time. “We can make blind mouse retinas see, and we’re moving as fast as we can to do the same in humans… This has all been thrilling. I can’t wait to get started on bringing this approach to patients.”
A few months later, in February 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, a high-tech artificial retina that was the first device of its kind to treat a form of progressive blindness known as retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The device, which was developed by Second Sight Medical Products, does not restore vision entirely, but it does allow users to detect differences in light patterns and some shapes.
The Argus II unit consists of a small video camera and transmitter attached to a pair of glasses. The camera converts visual input to electronic data, and that data is then transmitted to electrodes implanted on the patient´s retina. From there, the optic nerve carries the data to the brain, where it can be interpreted. The FDA authorized its use to treat patients who are at least 25 years of age with advanced RP and some remaining retinal function.
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New Prosthetic Device Could Help Cure Retinal Degeneration Patients
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