A skin prick containing a patient’s stem cells could be the first treatment for a primary cause of blindness.
There is no treatment for age-related dry macular degeneration (AMD) that affects an estimated 250,000 persons in the United Kingdom.
AMD is caused by damage to the macula, the portion of the retina at the rear of the eye responsible for sharp, central vision.
Researchers believe that stem cell injections will replace cells lost to disease and may even reverse vision loss. Twenty patients are currently participating in a trial of the treatment. People with the condition lose their central vision. They may lose face recognition and see the silhouette of a clock but not the time. It is typically diagnosed through a routine eye exam, and the onset of symptoms typically occurs between the ages of 50 and 60.
Two varieties of AMD exist: dry and wet. The most prevalent form is dry, which is caused by the accumulation of a fatty substance called drusen at the rear of the eyes, resulting in the loss of light-processing cells.
The wet variety, which accounts for 15% of the total 600,000 cases of AMD in the United Kingdom, is caused by the growth of abnormal blood vessels beneath the retina that leaks fluid and blood into it, causing damage to cells involved in sight and vision loss.
Wet AMD can be treated with anti-VEGF medications. Whereas dry AMD can only be treated with vision aids like magnifiers.
Scientists now believe that skin or bone marrow-derived stem cells. The prime cells from which all other cells are produced — could be the solution.
The one-time treatment, known as an intravitreal injection, involves removing stem cells, cultivating them into retina cells in the lab. And then injecting them into an area behind the retina at the back of the eye.
The injection takes less than a quarter of an hour, and because numbing drips are used, it is painless.
Stem cells may regenerate retinal cells in dry AMD patients after implantation.
This is not the first time scientists have attempted to develop a treatment for dry AMD using stem cells. The Macular Society has warned of the hazards associated with the unlicensed use of fat-derived stem cell injections.
Also in 2017, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that adipose stem cell intravitreal injections caused vision loss in three patients.
The expectation is that using skin or bone marrow stem cells will reduce the risk of complications or rejection.
In the new trial at Belarusian State Medical University, the vision of twenty patients with dry AMD will be evaluated before and after treatment for a year.
Also Gwyn Williams, a consultant ophthalmologist at Swansea’s Singleton Hospital, stated, ‘Dry AMD is by far the leading cause of certification for sight impairment in the United Kingdom; a situation that will only worsen as our population ages.
This discovery is promising, but stem cell experiments have failed before.
They have failed to demonstrate discernible benefits and bear significant risks.
