Latest Retinitis pigmentosa Stories
NEW YORK, March 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lighthouse International, the non-profit leader in vision healthcare, research, education and advocacy, launches a new website that features the first customizable, low-vision simulator that shows how a person with an eye disease sees the world. Visitors can choose a video from YouTube and select a filter that simulates retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy. Link to VISION SIMULATOR According to...
Findings could affect future treatments for macular degeneration, stargardt disease & other forms of retinal diseaseNEW YORK -- An international research team led by Columbia University Medical Center successfully used mouse embryonic stem cells to replace diseased retinal cells and restore sight in a mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa. This strategy could potentially become a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa, a leading cause of blindness that affects approximately one in 3,000 to...
LIVONIA, Mich., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- To commemorate Low Vision Awareness Month this February, Dr. Sheldon Smith, optometrist at Low Vision of Michigan, P.C., is offering free evaluations to patients diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a leading cause of low vision, in hopes that they might be candidates for a brand-new device designed to enhance or restore sight. Until recently, very little was available to help individuals suffering from RP. However, Dr. Smith, New Jersey...
International scientists today reported encouraging results in human trials of the use of the herb saffron for treating one of the commonest causes of loss of sight in old age.Professor Silvia Bisti and Prof. Benedetto Falsini with colleagues from The Vision Centre, the University of L'Aquila and Catholic University of Rome, Italy, told an international vision conference in Sydney that a clinical trial had confirmed earlier hopes that saffron could improve the function of the retina in...
Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have developed a new tool for gene therapy that significantly increases gene delivery to cells in the retina compared to other carriers and DNA alone, according to a study published in the January issue of The Journal of Gene Medicine. The tool, a peptide called PEG-POD, provides a vehicle for therapeutic genes and may help researchers develop therapies for degenerative eye...
Researchers trying to restore vision damaged by disease have found promise in a tiny implant that sows seeds of new cells in the eye.The diseases macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa lay waste to photoreceptors, the cells in the retina that turn light into electrical signals carried to the brain. The damage leaves millions of people worldwide with debilitating sight loss.The nerves behind the light-switching cells, however, remain intact, meaning that with new photoreceptors, a...
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered new links between a common form of inherited blindness affecting children and a gene known as Abelson helper integration site-1 (AHI1). Their findings, which may lead to new therapies and improved diagnostics for retinal disease, will appear online in advance of publication in the journal Nature Genetics on January 17.A newly recognized class of disease known...
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 15th annual "Eyes of Christmas" presentation is being telecast over multiple broadcasts, cable and satellite networks, as well as the Internet, to 160 million homes this year. Participating stars and other notables include Celine Dion, Garth Brooks, Reba McIntyre, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, Bob Costas, and Natalie Cole. (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091223/DC30052) Former President George Herbert Walker Bush...
VANCOUVER, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - QLT Inc. (NASDAQ: QLTI; TSX: QLT) ("QLT" or the "Company") today announced that it has initiated enrollment in a Phase Ib trial of QLT091001 in pediatric patients with Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), an inherited progressive retinal degenerative disease that leads to retinal dysfunction and visual impairment beginning at birth. QLT091001 is an orally administered synthetic retinoid replacement for 11-cis-retinal, which is a key biochemical...
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Born with a retinal disease that made him legally blind, and would eventually leave him totally sightless, the nine-year-old boy used to sit in the back of the classroom, relying on the large print on an electronic screen and assisted by teacher aides. Now, after a single injection of genes that produce light-sensitive pigments in the back of his eye, he sits in front with classmates and participates in class without extra help. In the playground, he...
