Grant to help UIC team fight blindness: New molecular approach is 'very promising'

Baby boomers face a growing vision threat from an eye diseasecalled macular degeneration.

Drugs, lasers and other treatments generally only slow theprogression. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois atChicago are trying a new approach that might restore vision.

The researchers hope to develop molecular structures that woulddo the work of cells damaged by the disease. These structures wouldbe injected into the eye.

Awarded $6.3 mil. grant

It would be years before patients benefit. But the National EyeInstitute believes the approach holds potential and recently gave afive-year, $6.3 million grant to a team headed by UIC visionresearcher David Pepperberg.

The new approach "is very promising," said Tim Schoen of theFoundation Fighting Blindness.

As many as 15 million Americans have macular degeneration. Thefastest-growing form of the disease affects the elderly. Maculardegeneration is the leading cause of vision loss and legal blindnessin adults over 60.

"As our population ages and the baby boomers advance into their50s and 60s, we will see a virtual epidemic of age-related maculardegeneration," predicts a support group Web site, AMD.org.

The disease destroys central vision necessary to read, drive,recognize faces, etc. Patients retain peripheral vision.

In a healthy eye, light-sensing cells in the retina, called rodsand cones, convert light into electrical impulses. These signals aresent to other nerve cells in the retina and then to the brain.Macular degeneration destroys the critical rods and cones.

Researchers hope someday to inject molecular structures thatwould attach to nerve cells behind the rods and cones. When lightstrikes these structures, the nerve cells would send signals to thebrain.

Researchers plan to test the technique first on cells, then onanimals, then on people.

The approach also might help treat other nerve diseases such asParkinson's and Alzheimer's, Pepperberg said.

RESEARCH 'ENCOURAGING'

The interdisciplinary team includes labs at UIC, VanderbiltUniversity, Oak Ridge National laboratory and University ofCalifornia at San Francisco.

Other teams in the U.S. and abroad are trying differentapproaches to restore vision in patients with macular degenerationand other eye diseases:

- Insert certain genes into retinal nerve cells. The genes wouldinstruct the cells to do the job of rods and cones.

- Program stem cells to do the work of rods and cones.

- Provide artificial vision with electronic retinas. Severalsystems under development have already produced primitive vision.

All the research under way "is encouraging for people who havelost their vision," Schoen said.

jritter@suntimes.com

VISION-ROBBING DISEASE

- Risk factors for macular degeneration: Advancing age, smoking,obesity, family history. Whites and women also at higher risk.

- Early symptoms: Blurred vision; small but growing blind spot inmiddle of field of vision; straight lines that appear crooked.

- "Dry" macular degeneration is most common; vision loss isgradual. Dry form can turn into "wet" macular degeneration, whichcan cause rapid and severe vision loss.

Treatments: Laser surgery destroys leaky blood vessels thatdamage the eye. A drug injected in the arm and a different druginjected in the eye can slow progression of the disease. In somepatients, eye injections improve vision.

Source: National Eye Institute