{"id":6115,"date":"2015-09-07T11:02:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=6115"},"modified":"2015-09-07T11:02:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-07T11:02:00","slug":"scientists-move-closer-to-curing-common-eye-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/scientists-move-closer-to-curing-common-eye-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Move Closer to Curing Common Eye Disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Scientists<\/a>
Scientists move closer to curing common eye disorder (Source: University of Manchester)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A team led by Rob Lucas, GSK Professor of Neuroscience, carried out the pioneering research which may help sufferers of retinitis pigmentosa, a group of inherited eye disorders.<\/span><\/p>\n

The treatment works by expressing a light sensitive human protein called rod opsin into the undamaged cells of the retina, so that it will turn them into special cells called photoreceptors which enable sight.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was trialled on mice who had inherited advanced retinal degeneration and so were essentially blind.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mice were able to distinguish flickering from steady light as well as spatial patterns and a \u2018natural movie\u2019 \u2013 an advance on attempts to combat the disorders using non-human proteins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

[pullquote]The treatment works by expressing a light sensitive human protein called rod opsin into the undamaged cells of the retina, so that it will turn them into special cells called photoreceptors which enable sight.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

Retinitis Pigmentosa is a leading cause of blindness worldwide: 1.5 million people worldwide are thought to be currently affected.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using a human protein, said Professor Lucas, is as advantageous as it is less harmful and easy to produce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Lucas said: \u201cWe aim to find ways of restoring photosensitivity to the retina in conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa in which loss of rod and cone photoreceptors lead to blindness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe protein rod opsin seems to be relatively successful under normal office light conditions, with images presented using standard computer screens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOther researchers have also had some success using other sorts of light protein, but these generally require much brighter light beyond what we generally experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Luca\u2019s paper was published in the journal\u00a0Science Biology<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: University of Manchester<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team led by Rob Lucas, GSK Professor of Neuroscience, carried out the pioneering research which may help sufferers of retinitis pigmentosa, a group of inherited eye disorders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",95,63,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",300,200,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bt1509_manchester_eye.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}