Researchers report that a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a previously irreversible degenerative eye disease that affects 2 million people around the world, was able to restore partial vision to patients.
The study was published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine. In people with RP, gene mutations cause the slow deterioration of the eye's rod-shaped photoreceptors, so visual information is no longer delivered to the brain. Led by Dr. José-Alain Sahel, a professor of ophthalmology at Sorbonne University and the University of Pittsburgh, researchers took a closer look at ChrimsonR, a protein that triggers electrical activity and makes cells able to absorb light.
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