Month: March 2014

Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a development-stage pharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutics, announced data suggesting that QPI-1007 prevents progressive retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss in an increased ocular pressure (IOP) rat model of glaucoma. The experiments performed by Prof. Adriana Di Polo of the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Universite de Montreal, indicate that QPI-1007 has the potential to treat patients with glaucoma. QPI-1007 is being evaluated in advanced IND-enabling preclinical studies as a neuroprotective agent for eye diseases.

QPI-1007 is Quark’s first proprietary siRNA drug candidate developed in collaboration with BioSpring GmbH, with its own intellectual property that gives Quark freedom to operate in the siRNA IP space. Previously announced studies have demonstrated a robust neuroprotective effect of QPI-1007 in two additional models of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death – induced by optic nerve crush or axotomy. In those studies, QPI-1007 was administered immediately after the optic nerve injury. In the current IOP study, QPI-1007 was administered 2 weeks after disease induction when more than 25% of RGCs have already been lost. Whereas RGC loss progressed in the control eyes, loss of RGCs was completely blocked in the QPI-1007-treated eyes

Dr. Daniel Zurr, Quark’s Chief Executive Officer, stated, “Quark is pleased to announce additional data supporting the therapeutic potential of QPI-1007 — the first siRNA drug candidate based on our own IP — as well as our proven ability to advance siRNA products from discovery to the clinic. Our leadership position within the RNAi field is set to continue with the upcoming IND filing for QPI-1007 to support initial clinical studies in non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. Quark has the largest portfolio of clinical-stage siRNAs and all of our pipeline candidates have exhibited optimal activity and stability while attenuating potential off-target effects.”

Prof. Di Polo commented, “In patients with glaucoma, characteristic visual field changes and vision loss are caused by the death of retinal ganglion cells. While existing therapeutics are capable of reducing IOP, none act as selective neuroprotective agents. We are encouraged by the QPI-1007 data, which suggest a neuroprotective effect on retinal ganglion cells in experimental glaucoma, presenting a major breakthrough in novel treatments for this neurodegenerative disease.”

About Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a development-stage pharmaceutical company engaged in discovering and developing novel RNAi-based therapeutics. Quark has a fully integrated drug development platform that spans therapeutic target identification to drug development. Quark’s RNAi technology includes novel siRNA structures and chemistry providing Quark with freedom to operate in the siRNA intellectual property arena, as well as the ability for non-invasive delivery of siRNA to other target tissues including the eye, ear, lung, spinal cord and brain.

PF-4523655 (RTP801i-14), currently in Phase II clinical trials, is a synthetic, chemically modified siRNA designed to inhibit the expression of the gene RTP801 discovered by Quark through the gene discovery platform BiFAR. PF-4523655 is licensed to Pfizer. In addition, Quark’s current clinical pipeline includes QPI-1002, the first systemically administered siRNA drug in human clinical trials, developed by Quark for the prevention of acute kidney injury (AKI) following major cardiovascular surgery and the prophylaxis of delayed graft function after kidney transplantation

Quark has a broad pipeline of siRNA drug candidates based on novel structures developed internally and is utilizing the chemistry to develop additional RNAi drug candidates. QPI-1007 is the most advanced and the first expected to enter clinical trials.

Quark is headquartered in Fremont, California and operates research and development facilities in Boulder, Colorado and Ness-Ziona, Israel.

Source: Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc

Kuldev Singh, MD, MPH, Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Glaucoma Service at the Stanford University School of Medicine, was elected to Chair the Board of the Glaucoma Research Foundation at the Board of Directors Annual Meeting held April 29. The Glaucoma Research Foundation (GRF) is America’s oldest national institution dedicated solely to preventing vision loss from glaucoma.

Dr. Singh received his MD and MPH degrees from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has received Senior Achievement and Secretariat awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Franklin G. Ebaugh Award from Stanford University where he has served on the faculty since 1992. Dr. Singh also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Glaucoma Society and is Executive Vice President of the World Glaucoma Association.

Dr. Singh joined the GRF Board of Directors in April 2007. He is Chairman of the Patient Education Committee and the GRF Council, a national leadership group of glaucoma specialists. Effective July 1, 2009, Dr. Singh will succeed Ms. Deirdre Porter of the San Francisco firm Wentworth, Hauser, and Violich, Inc. who has served the past three years as Board Chair for the Foundation.

“Kuldev has already brought many inventive ideas to GRF during his time serving on the Board of Directors, and we look forward to the leadership that his broad knowledge and experience in the field of glaucoma will bring to the Foundation,” said Thomas M. Brunner, GRF President and CEO.

Source
The Glaucoma Research Foundation

Genetic finding may have implications for farsightedness and nearsightedness, too.

Working with an Amish-Mennonite family tree, Johns Hopkins researchers at the Wilmer Eye Institute have discovered what appears to be the first human gene mutation that causes extreme farsightedness.

The researchers report that nanophthalmos, Greek for “dwarf eye,” is a rare, potentially blinding disorder caused by an alteration in a gene called MFRP that helps control eye growth and regulates the organ’s shape and focus. The study is described in the July 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The MFRP protein is only made in a tiny portion of the human eye, and it can alter eye refraction, or focus,” said Olof Sundin, Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the Wilmer Eye Institute. “We hope this protein holds the key to unlocking not only nanophthalmos, but other forms of farsightedness and nearsightedness as well.”

Hyperopia (farsightedness) and myopia (nearsightedness) — the ability to see only distant or near objects clearly, respectively — stems from the complex growth of the human eye. All human eyes have a slight degree of farsightedness at birth. As the child grows and gains more visual experience, the eye adjusts its focus by growing, which changes the distance between the lens and the retina, the light-detecting layer of cells at the back of the eye. Once the retina is the right distance from the lens for proper focus of images on the retina, a largely unknown mechanism that uses visual experience causes the eye to stop growing.

Due to natural genetic mutations, some eyes continue to grow beyond this point, causing nearsightedness. Other mutations cause the eye to stop growing too soon, causing farsightedness. In the case of nanophthalmos, a mutation in MFRP completely wipes out the function of the protein coded for by the gene. In people with this condition, the retina is too close to the lens, but the lens and cornea, the eye’s outermost layer, are of normal size and shape.

“Eyes with nanophthalmos still work quite well, despite these complications,” said Sundin. “But the disease’s secondary complications later in life, including glaucoma or detached retina, are far more severe and can lead to complete blindness.”

One such patient with nanophthalmos, an Amish-Mennonite woman who was blind in one eye, came to the Wilmer Eye Institute in 1998 for treatment. By reconstructing the woman’s family tree, the researchers discovered that several living relatives also suffered from nanophthalmos, and four deceased relatives had been part of the classic Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study in the 1970s that helped define the disease as genetic.

In Sundin’s study, the researchers examined the woman’s DNA for possible gene mutations causing nanophthalmos. According to Sundin, MFRP was a surprise candidate.

“Mutant MFRP was recently identified in mice as a cause of retinal degeneration, not extreme farsightedness,” he said. “However, a mouse’s eyes do not adjust their focus through growth like human eyes do, so MFRP has a completely different function in mice and was not assumed to alter eye refraction in humans.”

The research team successfully mapped the MFRP gene mutation in humans and discovered that the protein was completely missing from nanophthalmos patients.

In a normal human eye, the MFRP protein is located on the surface of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which is located beneath the retina and helps maintain photoreceptors, the eye’s light-detecting cells. Blindness occurs when these cells die after detachment of the retina from the RPE.

Beneath the RPE are two layers of structural tissue that give the eye its shape. During childhood, these tissues stretch, like a balloon, as the eye grows. “The RPE is believed to be the key link in signaling these tissues to stretch,” said Sundin. “And MFRP, located exclusively in the RPE and nowhere else in the body, is likely involved in that signaling process.”

Sundin plans to further investigate MFRP and ultimately develop drugs to regulate the gene’s function. He hopes the information gained from his study will open doors to correcting other types of severe refractive error, not only farsightedness, but also nearsightedness.

Authors of the study are Sundin, Gregory Leppert, Eduardo Silva, Jun-Ming Yang, Sharola Dharmaraj, Irene Maumenee, Jeffrey Toy, Ethan Weinberg, Cameron Parsa, Karl Broman, Cathy DiBernardo and Janet Sunness of Johns Hopkins; Elias Traboulsi of the Cole Eye Clinic, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio; and Luisa Coutinho Santos of the Lisbon Institute of Ophthalmology in Portugal.

Gregory Leppert is currently at the National Institutes of Health/Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, Bethesda, Md.; Jun-Ming Yang at the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute, Bethesda; Sharola Dharmaraj at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Mass.; Janet Sunness at the Department of Ophthalmology in the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Towson, Md.; and Jeffrey Toy at the Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Md.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, a Wasserman award from Research to Prevent Blindness, the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, the Wilmer Eye Institute, and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

PNAS July 5, 2005; 102(27):9553-9558.

On the Web:
pnas/cgi/content/abstract/102/27/9553

Joanna Downer or John Sales
jdowner1jhmi.edu
410-614-5105
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
hopkinsmedicine

The General Optical Council (GOC) is urging registrants to have their say on a revalidation scheme for opticians, as the Council launches an open consultation on its draft proposals. Comment is invited on any aspect of the GOC’s proposals, including: what criteria should determine whether a registrant undergoes revalidation; the intensity and frequency of the revalidation process; and the evidence required when demonstrating professional competence.

Jon Levett, GOC director of standards commented: “Revalidation will affect all those involved in the Council’s work. It is crucial that from the outset, all interested groups – particularly registrants – have ample opportunity to influence what revalidation will look like. Opening up the debate will help us formulate a scheme that is proportionate, effective and fair.”

Jon Levett added: “At this stage, nothing is set in stone. The Council will use these responses to develop more detailed proposals, which will then form the basis of a second consultation later in the year.”

A series of public consultation events on revalidation are anticipated toward the end of this year. The Council is encouraging registrants, optical bodies, employers, education providers, charities, fellow regulators and groups representing patients and the public to get involved in the consultation process.

Revalidation for registered optometrists and dispensing opticians will be introduced at the start of the 2012-15 CET cycle. The GOC plans to formally approve its policy in 2010.
The consultation document and draft revalidation proposals are available online at optical.

General Optical Council

Highlights of today’s Scientific Program of the 2009 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) – Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology (PAAO) Joint Meeting include: John T. Flynn, MD, Columbia University School of Medicine, discussing the ever-tougher challenges Eye M.D.s face in caring for the vision of the tiniest premature babies; and a report by Bradford W. Lee, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine, on barriers to glaucoma follow-up as perceived by patients in an urban, culturally diverse clinic.

The AAO-PAAO meeting is in session Oct. 24 through 27 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, Calif. As the largest, most comprehensive ophthalmic education conference in the world, it offers United States and international Eye M.D.s more than 2,000 scientifically-based, peer-reviewed presentations, including instruction courses, skills transfer labs, “Breakfast with the Experts” roundtables and 900 research papers and posters.

Saving Sight in Tiny Babies: the Past, Present and Future of ROP Treatment

Due to astonishing progress in neonatal medicine, younger and smaller babies than ever before are being saved: they often weigh less than one pound and may be born 10 to 14 weeks early. Paradoxically, this medical progress has generated new healthcare challenges, including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) a potentially blinding disease. ROP is more likely to occur in such tiny infants and to be severe and hard to treat successfully even with laser therapy, today’s method of choice. In a key lecture at today’s Pediatric Ophthalmology symposium John T. Flynn, MD, Columbia University School of Medicine, relates the history of ROP to today’s escalating treatment challenges and the search for new solutions.

From the 1970s onward, pediatric ophthalmologists have been increasingly able to reduce or cure ROP by adapting treatments developed for adult diabetic retinopathy. In the extremely premature infants saved today, though, all treatment parameters are more difficult and vulnerable to failure.

“It is time for pediatric ophthalmologists to reassess how best to screen and treat their smallest, frailest patients,” said Dr. Flynn.

Since 1942, when the use of medically pure oxygen was introduced, doctors have been able to save many more premature babies. But the treatment has also contributed to an epidemic of ROP-related blindness and vision loss in the US and other countries that provide neonatal intensive care. ROP vision loss occurs due to abnormal growth and function of blood vessels that nourish the retina, the light-sensitive area in the back of the eye where images are formed for relay to the brain’s visual cortex.

Long Wait Times, Interpreter Problems Impact Care, Glaucoma Clinic Patients Say

In the first study of its kind in the US, researchers asked San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) glaucoma clinic patients about their reasons for missing follow-up appointments with their ophthalmologists. Poor glaucoma follow-up is a widespread problem – especially among medically underserved groups – that leads to unnecessary vision loss. The study also investigated whether barriers were linked to ethnicity. Bradford W. Lee, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine, led the joint project by Stanford and University of California, San Francisco, Department of Ophthalmology.

“Many eye care professionals assume these patients skip appointments because of financial problems, insurance issues, or lack of understanding of the need for follow-up care,” said Dr. Lee, “but our results show other factors are more important, and that barriers vary somewhat with patient ethnicity.”

The most vexing issues were long clinic wait times and appointment-scheduling difficulties, according to the 152 SFGH clinic patients surveyed from Aug. 2008 to Jan. 2009. Seventy-five percent of patients cited long wait times as a significant barrier. And even though SFGH provides medical interpreting services, 37 percent of Latino-ethnicity and 32 percent of Asian-ethnicity patients cited language and interpreter issues as significant barriers. The researchers say new strategies to streamline appointment procedures for non-English speaking patients, and resolving wait time and interpreter issues should be top priorities for SFGH and similar glaucoma clinics.

Source
American Academy of Ophthalmology

Patients who have lost part of their visual awareness following a stroke can show an improved ability to see when they are listening to music they like, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Every year, an estimated 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke. Up to 60% of stroke patients have impaired visual awareness of the outside world as a result, where they have trouble interacting with certain objects in the visual world.

This impaired visual awareness, known as ‘visual neglect’, is due to the damage that a stroke causes in brain areas that are critical for the integration of vision, attention and action. Visual neglect causes the patient to lose awareness of objects in the opposite side of space compared to the site of their brain injury.

If the stroke occurs in the right hemisphere of the brain, these patients tend to lose awareness of visual information in the left side of space. This occurs even though the area of the brain associated with sight is not damaged.

The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London, the University of Birmingham and other institutions, suggest that listening to their favourite music may help stroke patients with impaired visual awareness to regain their ability to see.

The new study looked at three patients who had lost awareness of half of their field of vision as a result of a stroke. The patients completed tasks under three conditions: while listening to their preferred music, while listening to music they did not like and in silence. All three patients could identify coloured shapes and red lights in their depleted side of vision much more accurately while they were listening to their preferred music, compared with listening to music they did not like or silence.

For example, in one task, patients were asked to press a button when they could see a red light appear. One patient could point out the light in 65% of cases while he was listening to music he liked, but could only recognise the light in 15% of cases when there was no music or music he did not like being played.

The researchers believe that the improvement in visual awareness seen in these patients could be as a result of patients experiencing positive emotions when listening to music that they like. The team suggest that when a patient experiences positive emotions this may result in more efficient signalling in the brain. This may then improve the patient’s awareness by giving the brain more resources to process stimuli.

The team also used functional MRI scans to look at the way the brain functioned while the patients performed different tasks. They found that listening to pleasant music as the patients performed the visual tasks activated the brain in areas linked to positive emotional responses to stimuli. When the brain was activated in this way, the activation in emotion brain regions was coupled with the improvement of the patients’ awareness of the visual world.

Dr David Soto, the lead author of the study from the Division of Neurosciences and Mental Health at Imperial College London, said: “Visual neglect can be a very distressing condition for stroke patients. It has a big effect on their day-to-day lives. For example, in extreme cases, patients with visual neglect may eat only the food on the right side of their plate, or shave only half of their face, thus failing to react to certain objects in the environment”.

“We wanted to see if music would improve visual awareness in these patients by influencing the individual’s emotional state. Our results are very promising, although we would like to look at a much larger group of patients with visual neglect and with other neuropsychological impairments. Our findings suggest that we should think more carefully about the individual emotional factors in patients with visual neglect and in other neurological patients following a stroke. Music appears to improve awareness because of its positive emotional effect on the patient, so similar beneficial effects may also be gained by making the patient happy in other ways. This is something we are keen to investigate further,” added Dr Soto.

This research was funded by the British Academy, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council and Stroke Association.

“Pleasant music overcomes the loss of awareness in patients with visual neglect” – PNAS Monday 23 March 2009.

Imperial College London
ic.ac

Airline pilots have an increased risk of nuclear cataracts [common type of cataract, associated with aging] compared with non-pilots, and that risk is associated with cumulative exposure to cosmic radiation, according to a study in the August issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Commercial airline pilots are reported to be at an increased risk for some cancers, but studies on the biological effects of their exposure to cosmic radiation have been limited, according to background information in the article. Previous studies have shown that cataracts can be caused by exposure to radiation, including a recent study of astronauts showing an association of incidence of cataracts with space radiation at exposure levels comparable to those of commercial airline pilots.

Vilhjalmur Rafnsson, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, and colleagues conducted a case control study involved 445 men to determine whether employment as a pilot is associated with lens opacification. The cases included 71 men with nuclear cataract, and the controls (n = 374) were those men with different types of lens opacification or without lens opacification. Among the 445 men, 79 were commercial pilots and 366 had never been pilots. All participants in the study were 50 years or older and other factors that contribute to cataract risk, including smoking, age and sunbathing, were controlled for in the statistical analysis. Exposure to cosmic radiation was assessed based on employment time as pilots, annual number of hours flown on each aircraft type, time tables, flight profiles and individual cumulative radiation doses calculated by computer.

Among the 71 cases with nuclear cataract, 15 were employed as commercial pilots, whereas among the 374 controls (without nuclear cataract), 64 were employed as pilots.

“The odds ratio for nuclear cataract risk among cases and controls was 3.02 for pilots compared with nonpilots, adjusted for age, smoking status, and sunbathing habits,” the researchers report. The researchers found an association between the estimated cumulative radiation dose and the risk of nuclear cataract.

“The association between the cosmic radiation exposure of pilots and the risk of nuclear cataracts, adjusted for age, smoking status, and sunbathing habits, indicates that cosmic radiation may be a causative factor in nuclear cataracts among commercial airline pilots,” the authors conclude.

(Arch Ophthalmol. 2005; 123:1102-1105. Available pre-embargo to the media at jamamedia.)

Editor’s Note: This study was supported by a grant from the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the Helga Jonsdottir and Sigurlidi Kristjansson Memorial Fund, Reykjavik, Iceland. All of the authors have frequently traveled on Icelandair and other airline companies. They have no financial connections with the airline company or the pilots’ union.

For more information, contact JAMA/Archives Media Relations at 312-464-JAMA (5262) or email mediarelationsjama-archives.

Vilhjalmur Rafnsson, M.D., Ph.D.
354-893-5415
JAMA and Archives Journals
jamamedia

The independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) scheme for NHS cataract services was an expensive over-reaction to the need to increase rates of cataract surgery, say senior doctors in this week’s BMJ.

Many ophthalmology departments had improved cataract surgery pathways before the ISTC programme was proposed, writes Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, Simon Kelly in a letter signed by the President and Vice President of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the Chair of the BMA’s Ophthalmic Group Committee.

Had the Department of Health followed the advice of clinicians, the royal colleges, and the BMA when the cataract and other ISTC schemes were proposed, improved access to cataract surgery would have been realised with much less expenditure, without adverse effects on surgical training, and without destabilising NHS eye departments.

However, an alternative direction was taken, they say. And despite the paucity of clinical outcome data, and the lack of evidence of cost effectiveness of phase 1 of the ISTC programme, further investment in cataract surgical facilities continues in phase 2.

Meanwhile, for long term stability of the service, the best option for the public is to support local NHS units, which brought down cataract waiting times, which patients need to call on in an emergency or for chronic eye disease, and which train the next generation of surgeons while meeting waiting time targets.

A constructive partnership of clinicians, managers, and commissioners is a surer way to achieve sustained improvements in access and quality of care, rather than centrally imposed initiatives and diktat, such as the needless cataract ISTCs, they conclude.

Contact: Emma Dickinson

BMJ-British Medical Journal

A mother-of-three from Hednesford, England, has ditched her thick glasses after 40 years thanks to a “life changing” operation at Cannock Chase Hospital. Linda McCormack, age 43, suffered from such bad myopia, or short-sightedness, she needed the strongest prescription glasses available. Her glasses were so thick that Linda suffered years of cruel taunts as a child and she was virtually blind without the heavy lenses.

But after some prompting from her optician and thanks to a Cannock Chase Hospital eye surgeon, Linda has been able to throw away the glasses she has hated for the last 40 years. Linda’s optician, John Beddows, was amazed when he saw the strength of her glasses and suggested she asked the hospital if they could help.

“She really was on the very limit of prescription glasses,” said Mr Beddows, who owns Portland Eye Care, in Cannock, and is also a local councillor. “I know there has been a lot of medical progress in optical surgery and said she should ask if anything could be done to help her, and Cannock Chase Hospital stepped up to the mark. What they’ve done for her is amazing.”

Consultant ophthalmic surgeon Mr Bal Manoj carried out an operation to insert a corrective lens in both of Linda’s eyes to enable her see better.

“I was born a month premature, which affected my eyesight and I had also developed cataracts. When I was younger, people walking down the street would stare at my glasses and call me names. I got really fed up with it,” said Linda. “I couldn’t do anything unless I was wearing my glasses. Without them everything used to be blurred unless it was two inches away from my face. Now I only need glasses for reading small print. I was really worried before the operation because I thought I might never see my five-month-old granddaughter Natasha again. But as soon as I had my eye patch off I could see crystal clear – it was amazing. It’s changed my life and I can’t thank Mr Beddows, Mr Manoj and the hospital eye care centre staff enough. I’m free from those horrible glasses. It has given me loads more confidence, I’m like a different person. The hospital staff were all brilliant. I just wish I had been able to have it done years ago, but the procedure wasn’t around when I was a little girl. It’s given me a totally new life.”

Linda’s husband Mark said: “Linda’s glasses were so heavy they used to leave marks on her nose. It was great when they took the patches off her eyes. Her first words were ‘Wow, I can see’. She was so happy, it’s been great for her.”

Mr Manoj said: “Linda had quite unusually high myopia, of minus 30. We regularly see patients with minus nine or 10, but not 30. Because her glasses were very, very thick, her field of vision was also narrowed. The operation is one we carry out regularly for cataract patients and people do notice a big difference, but because Linda was so short-sighted she has noticed a vast difference. In addition to the surgical challenges of operating on a very large eyeball, there are many technical challenges like getting all the complex calculations required for the lens implant, a process called biometry. We aim to get all our patients as close to zero on the scale as possible and I’m pleased to say Linda is now not very far from this.”

— Image 1 – Linda McCormack, holding the thick glasses she has been able to ditch thanks to Cannock Chase Hospital, pictured with grandaughter Natasha and optician John Beddows.
— Image 2 – A close up shot of Linda’s old glasses, which had 1cm thick lenses.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Brand new research launched at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester is bringing hope to hundreds of people with diabetes who lose their sight each year as a side-effect of the disease.

People with diabetes commonly experience blindness, or a reduction in sight, when a lack of oxygen at the back of the eye causes tiny blood vessels to overgrow into the vitreous humour, which is a jelly like substance. This jelly like substance is removed during surgery to treat this problem.

Pharmaceutical researchers at the University of East Anglia have revealed that they are developing an artificial form of this vitreous humour so that it can be replaced following surgery or if it has been damaged or degenerated for other reasons.

Biologist Janine Morris working with Pharmacist Susan Barker and Biologist Julie Sanderson at the School of Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, is identifying the essential characteristics of the human and pig vitreous humour so that they can be mimicked artificially.

She says: “I am currently making a gel that imitates the vitreous humour and which is non-cytotoxic to the human eye. The substance will also include anti-angiogenic drugs to prevent the blood vessels re-growing and the original damage re-occurring.”

Placing this artificial jelly into the damaged eye should certainly improve and potentially restore lost sight. Janine Morris says that the research, which is in the preliminary stages, is good news for diabetes sufferers who will be protected against recurring damage. “The idea that we can potentially improve and maintain sight for diabetes sufferers by replacing the vitreous humour is amazing,” she says.

The vitreous humour is a clear gel-like substance that fills the space between the lens and the retina of the eye. It is 99% water but also contains collagen fibres, inorganic salts, acids and sugar.

For further information please visit:
The University of East Anglia