Today it is possible to correct almost any visual impairment from myopia and hyperopia to amblyopia. But what if the vision is completely lost? Russian scientists say that this case is not at all hopeless and genetic engineering can come to the aid of humans.
The technology developed by scientists from Moscow State University, the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences is based on the gene modification of some eye cells that have the ability to synthesize a light-sensitive protein. A special virus will be used to deliver the desired gene to the cells of the eye and "start" the protein production process. As the project manager, neurophysiologist Pavel Balaban said in an interview with Izvestia, “We have learned to plant a gene in living cells that produces a light-sensitive protein. Thanks to this, almost any cell can become light-sensitive. In 90% of blind people, the optic nerve remains intact, which is about a million nerve cells. An image falls on them from an open eye, but the cells cannot see it, since they lack light sensitivity. However, if each of these cells is taught to produce a light-sensitive protein, then they will be able to transmit a pretty good image to the brain.
Scientists have now completed the first phases of testing and are preparing to improve the technology, and full-scale clinical trials are scheduled to begin in 2021-2022.
Vladimir Kuznetsov