Blindness ‘cure’ set for trials

A GENE therapy being developed in Ireland that offers a cure for blindness could move to human trials as early as next year.

About 7,000 people in Ireland suffer from retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited disease and one of the biggest causes of blindness in the developed world.

The ground-breaking development will take place in the new Fighting Blindness Research Institute at Dublin City University, announced by Health Minister Mary Harney yesterday.

The centre, based at the university’s National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology, will be opened by Fighting Blindness next February to coincide with the Irish charity’s 25th anniversary. The clinical trials are expected to start within 18 months.

Spokesperson for Fighting Blindness Avril Daly was found to be suffering from RP 11 years ago. Now aged 33, she is at the mid-stage of the disease.

“The institute is a way of driving forward the research that is already going on in Ireland and approaching clinical trials,” said Avril.

While RP is a degenerative disease, the cells die off over a period that is specific to each individual.

“What is happening is that people are losing their sight over a period of time. It can be a slow degeneration or it can be very quick. Some people can go blind within months,” Avril explained.

And while it is a genetic condition, more and more people are being diagnosed without any family history.

Because the disability is gradual, the charity’s sole clinical psychologist, Mary Lavelle, who also has RP, is finding it increasingly difficult to provide the ongoing support that people with the condition need.

Avril pointed out that Fighting Blindness was the first organisation in the world to find the gene responsible for RP, in 1989.

“Because we are now approaching clinical trials we really need to consolidate our research and that is why we have established the centre,” she said.

Researchers at the centre will also look at how stem cells can also be used to cure RP.

“The challenge now is to find adult stem cells that can be transplanted into the eye and regenerate vision,” said Avril, who added that scientists at Trinity College Dublin have been conducting research in this area since 2003.