Researcher finds revolutionary way to treat eye cancer

Treatment may prevent blindness

AURORA, Colorado (August 27, 2010) – Rare but devastating, eye cancer can strike anyone at any time and treating it often requires radiation that leaves half of all patients partially blind.

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Biosynthetic corneas restore vision in humans

A new study from researchers in Canada and Sweden has shown that biosynthetic corneas can help regenerate and repair damaged eye tissue and improve vision in humans. The results, from an early phase clinical trial with 10 patients, are published in the August 25th, 2010 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

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Antibiotic may reduce stroke risk and injury in diabetics

AUGUSTA, Ga. - A daily dose of an old antibiotic may help diabetics avoid a stroke or at least minimize its damage, Medical College of Georgia researchers report.

Minocycline, a drug already under study at MCG for stroke treatment, may help diabetics reduce remodeling of blood vessels in the brain that increases their stroke risk and help stop bleeding that often follows a stroke, said Dr. Adviye Ergul, physiologist in the MCG Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies.

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Breakthrough gene therapy prevents retinal degeneration

BOSTON (August 16, 2010) — In one of only two studies of its kind, a study from researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts demonstrates that non-viral gene therapy can delay the onset of some forms of eye disease and preserve vision. The team developed nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic genes to the retina and found that treated mice temporarily retained more eyesight than controls. The study, published online in advance of print in Molecular Therapy, brings researchers closer to a non-viral gene therapy treatment for degenerative eye disorders.

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Promising results of gene therapy to treat diseases of the eye

New Rochelle, NY, August 13, 2010—The easy accessibility of the eye and the established link between specific genetic defects and ocular disorders offer hope for using gene therapy to provide long-term therapeutic benefit. Two reports in the current issue of Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com), describe the effective replacement of a human gene to preserve photoreceptor function in a mouse model of severe retinal degeneration. The articles are available free online (www.liebertpub.com/hum).

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Valproic acid shown to halt vision loss in patients with retinitis pigmentosa

UMass Medical School coordinating a $2.1 million three-year clinical trial

WORCESTER, MASS. — Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) believe they may have found a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a severe neurodegenerative disease of the retina that ultimately results in blindness. One of the more common retinal degenerative diseases, RP is caused by the death of photoreceptor cells and affects 1 in 4,000 people in the United States. RP typically manifests in young adulthood as night blindness or a loss of peripheral vision and in many cases progresses to legal blindness by age 40.

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Blind mice can ’see’ thanks to special retinal cells

It would make the perfect question for the popular television show “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader:” What parts of the eye allow us to see?

The conventional wisdom: rods and cones. The human retina contains about 120 million rods, which detect light and darkness, shape and movement, and about 7 million cones, which in addition detect color. Without them, or so we are taught, our eyesight simply would not exist.

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Study finds new key to corneal transplant success

Highlights of July 2010 Ophthalmology

SAN FRANCISCO, CA– Although it is already one of medicine’s most successful transplant procedures, doctors continue to seek ways to improve corneal transplants. Now, for the first time, a team of German and British researchers have confirmed that failure and rejection of transplanted corneas are more likely in patients whose eyes exhibit abnormal vessel growth, called corneal neovascularization, prior to surgery. The meta-analysis report appears in July Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The findings also suggest a new treatment approach that could improve transplant success rates.

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ACCORD eye study finds 2 therapies slow diabetic eye disease progression

In high-risk adults with type 2 diabetes, researchers have found that two therapies may slow the progression of diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease that is the leading cause of vision loss in working-age Americans.

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Agent Orange exposure linked to Graves’ disease in Vietnam veterans, UB study finds

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Vietnam War-era veterans exposed to Agent Orange appear to have significantly more Graves’ disease, a thyroid disorder, than veterans with no exposure, a new study by endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo has shown.

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