Earlier this year we wrote about the promising results of a phase 1 clinical trial aimed at replacing the deteriorating cells in the retinas of people suffering from age-related macular degeneration- one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide for people over 50. Now there’s even more good news! Highlighted in a news story on the UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) website, researchers are continuing to make progress in their bid to secure approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the life-changing treatment.

When Anna Kuehl began losing her vision, she feared losing the ability to read and go on long walks in nature—two of her favorite pastimes. Anna had been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in the US. She lost the central vision in her left eye, which meant she could no longer make out people’s faces clearly, drive a car, or read the time on her watch.

For people who have relied on good eyesight for the first six or seven decades of their lives, the diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is devastating. This disease, which currently has no cure, can severely limit central vision and, in many cases, may culminate in legal blindness (unable to see the Big E on the eye chart; vision less than 20/200). Early results from two new stem-cell trials, however, suggest that this type of treatment may be able to restore sight in people with both the dry and wet forms of AMD. 

Full article in the link below.

A UC Santa Barbara collaboration publishes its clinical trial preliminary findings for a bioengineered retinal pigment epithelial monolayer for advanced, dry age-related macular degeneration. Non-neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NNAMD) is a progressive blinding disease primarily due to loss of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the eye. Currently, there is no effective treatment for NNAMD. Now, Kashani and colleagues have developed a clinical-grade retinal implant made of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)–derived RPE grown on a synthetic substrate. In a first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial in five patients with advanced NNAMD, the implant was shown to be safe and well tolerated. Preliminary results reported potential therapeutic effects on visual acuity, suggesting that this approach might be useful for treating retinal disorders involving RPE loss.

The paper is featured as the cover story of Science Translational Medicine April 2018, link below.