14 DAY TRIAL // Macular degeneration is a medical condition that comes down to damage to the retina and, as a result, loss of vision. It usually affects older adults, and so specialists quite often call it age-related macular degeneration.
When caused by cellular debris scarring the retina, it's known as dry macular degeneration. In turn, the so-called wet form of this condition is the result of leaking blood vessels.
Since its underlying trigger is damage to the retina, the condition is not easy to treat. All the same, a clinical trial now ongoing in London could bring new hope to people who have lost their vision to this disorder.
The trial involves an experimental stem cell treatment
As part of the clinical trial now being carried out at the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, medical experts plan to implant 10 macular degeneration patients with patches made up of specialized eye cells called retinal pigment epithelium.
Derived from stem cells and placed behind the retina, these patches should help repair damaged tissues and so restore the patients' vision.
“The trial is investigating the safety and efficacy of transplanting eye cells (retinal pigment epithelium) derived from stem cells to treat people with sudden severe visual loss from wet AMD [age-related macular degeneration],” the team explains.
“These cells are used to replace those at the back of the eye that are diseased in AMD. This is done using a specially engineered patch inserted behind the retina in an operation lasting one to two hours.”
The specialists say it was last month that a woman, the first of the patients included in the clinical trial, underwent the experimental procedure. It won't be until December that the researchers will find out whether the treatment worked.
For the time being, they can only disclose that the patient hasn't experienced any serious side effects and that, judging by how things are going, she might actually recover her vision, albeit only to a certain extent.
This novel procedure could one day become routine
As noted, this stem cell treatment for macular degeneration now being trialed at the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London is still in its early days. Nonetheless, specialists hope it will one day become routine.
The patients included in the trial all suffer from wet macular degeneration. However, experts think the treatment has high chances to also work on the dry form of the condition.
“There is real potential that people with wet age-related macular degeneration will benefit in the future from transplantation of these cells,” said retinal surgeon Professor Lyndon Da Cruz in an interview.
These days, vision loss as a result of macular degeneration is a common problem among older individuals, which explains why researchers are quite eager to find a treatment for this condition.