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Johns Hopkins research may eventually cure MS-related vision problems

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    Johns Hopkins research may eventually cure MS-related vision problems

    Partial article

    Drs. Donald Zack and Valentin Sluch spent 30 anxious days waiting for their experiment to yield results.
    They were eager to see if the retinal ganglion cells growing in their lab would turn red, indicating that they'd successfully edited the cells' DNA. Turning the eye cells red would allow them to be sorted from other cells and potentially provide the key to research that one day could lead to a cure for blindness caused by glaucoma or multiple sclerosis.



    "I was checking every day," Sluch said. "When I first saw red cells in the cultures, I was really excited and I ran to get a colleague to tell them that it worked."


    The breakthrough of growing eye cells in a lab, developed by Johns Hopkins University researchers, will also allow them to better understand the diseases and develop better drug therapies. Hopkins is already testing drug therapies through a five-year partnership with German pharmaceutical company Bayer that began earlier this year. Existing drug therapies work by reducing the pressure in the eye, which slows the progression of blindness.

    Up to half of the 2.3 million people worldwide with multiple sclerosis, or MS, develop optic neuritis, a condition that can lead to partial or total blindness. MS affects nerve fibers and disrupts communication between the brain and the rest of the body.

    Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/b...220-story.html

    #2
    The original article is mostly about glaucoma. Because of that, the author made a statement that should have been put into context, but wasn't. Out of context, the statement implies that there are existing drug therapies for "the diseases," which, because of a previous mention of multiple sclerosis, then implies that there are existing drug therapies for optic neuritis caused by MS.

    The paragraph is:

    The breakthrough of growing eye cells in a lab, developed by Johns Hopkins University researchers, will also allow them to better understand the diseases and develop better drug therapies. Hopkins is already testing drug therapies through a five-year partnership with German pharmaceutical company Bayer that began earlier this year. Existing drug therapies work by reducing the pressure in the eye, which slows the progression of blindness.

    This statement is referring to glaucoma, which is partially caused by increased pressure inside the eye and is currently treated by reducing pressure inside the eye. That is not how vision is lost from optic neuritis, and there are no existing drug therapies for blindness caused by optic neuritis in MS.

    So for anyone who read that and wondered if you were missing out on some treatment for vision loss after optic neuritis, you aren't. It doesn't exist yet.

    As for when that might happen, the Baltimore Sun article also says:

    Despite these advances, the researchers don't want to raise hopes that a cure for blindness is just around the corner. Zack said he was reluctant to estimate when such a transplant would be a reality. Even if a transplant became possible, any vision restored would likely be blurry and dim, Sluch said.


    "Right now for a person that's completely blind, just being able to know what time of day it might be or if the lights are on in a room might be a big improvement in their life," Sluch said. "But I want to be realistic and say it'll take a lot of work to even get to that point."

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