British doctors hail 'cure for blindness' with successful treatment of age-related muscular degeneration

Groundbreaking operation was carried out be surgeons at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital Rex British surgeons have taken a “big step forward” towards curing the most common form of blindness by developing and successfully performing a ground breaking operation. Surgeons at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital carried out the first operation on a female patient with wet age-related muscular degeneration (AMD), characterised by leaking blood vessels. They now believe that the same procedure could apply to dry AMD, which accounts for nine out of 10 of the 600,000 people affected by the condition in the UK. AMD affects central vision which is what you see when focus straight ahead, according to NHS Choices. In AMD this vision becomes increasingly blurred, which means that reading becomes difficult, colours appear less vibrant and people’s face are difficult to recognise. By 2020, it's predicted almost 700,000 people will have late-stage AMD in the UK.

However, after performing surgery on the 60-year patient, who was classified as legally blind, surgeons are optimistic of a breakthrough, although the full impact on her sight is known. She is one of 10 people to take part in the trial. After taking a single stem cell from an embryo and growing a patch of cells in a laboratory, these were then transplanted into the patient’s eye. The cells were taken unused embryos created during IVF treatment that went unused. “The reason why we are so excited is that we have been able to grow a perfect copy of the eye,” Professor Lyndon Da Cruz, a surgeon at Moorfields told the Telegraph. He added that he optimistic that the patient’s sight would be restored. “Having got this far, we feel it will work,” Prof Cruz said. “There has been a lot of research behind this and this is not looking like a route to treatment.” The surgery could be routine within five years, he said. Professor Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, described the surgery as “a big step forward to curing a major cause of blindness.” If the trials were successful he told The Telegraph that the therapy could be “affordably manufactured at large scale,” enabling all patients to benefit.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-doctors-hail-cure-for-blindness-with-successful-treatment-of-age-related-muscular-a6671106.html

I can't imagine the horror of being blind. This is great news.

eddie wrote:I can't imagine the horror of being blind. This is great news.

Indeed eddie, I cannot imagine.
This is great news and it does make me marvel at medical breakthroughs.

As you know I'm not a fan of most science but sometimes it leaves me humbled and eating my own words.....and for giving someone the gift of sight, I'm happy to eat my words a million times over.

eddie wrote:As you know I'm not a fan of most science but sometimes it leaves me humbled and eating my own words.....and for giving someone the gift of sight, I'm happy to eat my words a million times over.

This is what I do not grasp about you Eddie.
You have faith in nothing you can see or provide evidence for, a deity, though at least your faith is harmless and is personal and something many could get on board with. But then you have little faith in science, which actually does pull off what was once thought impossible.
Anyhow you have no need to eat humble pie.

Cuchulain wrote:

eddie wrote:As you know I'm not a fan of most science but sometimes it leaves me humbled and eating my own words.....and for giving someone the gift of sight, I'm happy to eat my words a million times over.

This is what I do not grasp about you Eddie.
You have faith in nothing you can see or provide evidence for, a deity, though at least your faith is harmless and is personal and something many could get on board with. But then you have little faith in science, which actually does pull off what was once thought impossible.
Anyhow you have no need to eat humble pie.

I am an enigma didge, even to myself

eddie wrote:I can't imagine the horror of being blind. This is great news.

It is great news! One of our friends is gradually losing his sight, it started with the loss of his peripheral vision and eventually he will not be able to see at all. Heartbreaking

feelthelove wrote:

eddie wrote:I can't imagine the horror of being blind. This is great news.

It is great news!  One of our friends is gradually losing his sight, it started with the loss of his peripheral vision and eventually he will not be able to see at all.  Heartbreaking  

Let's hope he can be helped FTL x

eddie wrote:

feelthelove wrote:

It is great news!  One of our friends is gradually losing his sight, it started with the loss of his peripheral vision and eventually he will not be able to see at all.  Heartbreaking  

Let's hope he can be helped FTL x

I hope so, he lost his wife suddenly as a result of an undiagnosed heart defect when she was 40 and left to raise his two children alone.  Tough when he lives in the country and is not allowed to drive, I would love to see this work for him.  It must be terrible to be blind but I always imagine it to be harder when you lose your sight when you have been able to see and know what you are missing x

feelthelove wrote:

eddie wrote:

feelthelove wrote:

It is great news!  One of our friends is gradually losing his sight, it started with the loss of his peripheral vision and eventually he will not be able to see at all.  Heartbreaking  

Let's hope he can be helped FTL x

I hope so, he lost his wife suddenly as a result of an undiagnosed heart defect when she was 40 and left to raise his two children alone.  Tough when he lives in the country and is not allowed to drive, I would love to see this work for him.  It must be terrible to be blind but I always imagine it to be harder when you lose your sight when you have been able to see and know what you are missing x

Yes I was going to say that. To be born blind is horrible enough but to then lose your sight must be very very frightening.


Ps I wrote "blond" instead of blind.....you'd have killed me if I hadn't rectified that one!

Great news!


Maybe some of the lefties will be able to get some of it to help them with their 'blind eye syndrome'...!?