Eleven advanced RP patients, with no light perception, or just perception of light in the study eye, and no better than counting fingers in the fellow eye, received intravitreal optogenetics gene therapy. They improved visual acuity from baseline at 16 weeks.
The single intravitreal injection targets bipolar cells instead of retinal ganglion cells. Optogenetics gene therapy turns bipolar cells into light-sensing activated neurons in response to light, making them the new photoreceptors of the retina.
Methods: Totally eleven patients were enrolled in the trial, three of them got a low dose of gene medicine per eye and three patients received a high dose. Once the safety of the high dose was confirmed, the other five patients were added to the high dose cohort.
Safety: The therapy was well tolerated at 16 weeks. Five patients didn’t have any side effects, the other five patients had high eye pressure, and were managed with topical glaucoma medication, and the rest three patients experienced intraocular inflammation that subsided with topical steroids.
Conclusion: At 16 weeks, seven of eight patients in the high dose cohort demonstrated a visual acuity improvement of 15 letters or more, and six of eight patients demonstrated an improvement of 30 letters or more from baseline. One patient in the low dose group demonstrated a visual improvement of 15 letters or more.
China has the most visually impaired people in the world. According to the statistics made in 2014, there are over 8.24 million blind people, over one-third of these people’s blindness is caused by RP, AMD, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy. With these encouraging results from the Nanoscope Therapeutics, our research team in China plans to finish the phase 2 clinical trial in 2025 and hope to help millions of advanced RP patients regain their sight.
How to maintain the optic nerve function while we are waiting for the availability of gene therapy?
Although optogenetics gene therapy brings hope for advanced RP patients, as we all know, the treatment results depend on the function of the remaining optic nerve, the more functional optic nerve left, the better the result might be. For those very late-stage patients, it’s crucial to protect and maintain the remaining optic nerve cells. StemActiv as a natural organic herbal product, is the best solution to ensure adequate nutrients and oxygen to the retina, preventing apoptosis. If we compare RP patients’ retina to the barren land, StemActiv is like fertilizing it with more water and nutrients.
For more information about StemActiv, please review: https://www.restorevisionherbs.com