Stem cell researchers on brink of cure for macular degeneration
'Father of cloning' says macular degeneration treatment is already being tested in humans
Sufferers of an incurable form of a common age-related eye disease that leads to blindness could soon be cured, thanks to ground-breaking stem cell research.
Developmental biologist and Nobel laureate Professor John Gurdon says that stem cell replacement therapy for the dry form of macular degeneration has been shown to "work quite well" in animals and is now being tested in humans.
Speaking in Hong Kong yesterday, the 80-year-old Gurdon said: "My understanding is that the permission to offer this as a therapeutic treatment is about six months away. The trials in humans take about three months to see if they're successful, and then after that it should really be no problem in making [the treatment] available to patients."
The disease gradually destroys sharp, central vision needed for seeing objects clearly and for common tasks such as reading and driving. It progresses with the death of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a dark-coloured layer of cells which nourishes the visual cells in the retina.
Douglas Sipp, from Japan's RIKEN Centre for Developmental Biology, said a number of organisations - including his - are studying stem-cell-derived RPE to treat macular degeneration, "but none has really progressed beyond early stage safety testing".
Sipp clarified that it is possible that permission to initiate a clinical trial using this treatment may be six months away, but offering the therapy to the masses may take some time since phase-two and phase-three clinical trials would take years.