RADICAL NEW treatments for degenerative eye conditions are on the way, and Ireland stands to play a crucial role in their development.
That's according to the patient-led charity Fighting Blindness, which today launches a dedicated research institute at Dublin City University (DCU).
The Fighting Blindness Vision Research Institute will investigate stem cells in an effort to overcome degenerative eye conditions that affect more than 60,000 people in Ireland and around four million worldwide.
There is currently no cure for such conditions, where cells in the eye die away permanently and lead to progressive loss of vision, says the charity's chief executive Michael Griffith. However, treatments are being developed to stop the eye cells dying, he adds.
"The nearest one at the moment is being developed in America. It's an encapsulated cell that they implant into the eye and it contains genetic material that releases a growth factor and stops the degeneration."
However, the charity's new dedicated facility at the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at DCU will take a different approach. They want to use stem cells that are capable of becoming light-sensitive photoreceptor cells to replace those that have died away.
"Our whole strategy is to push as many resources as we possibly can into stem-cell research," says Griffith. "We feel if we can do that and develop stem-cell therapy, we can restore sight to people."
Researchers at the new institute will work on placing adult stem cells in the retina at the back of the eye so they can function in vision. "We want first of all be able to grow the stem cells in sufficient numbers, then be able to transplant them into the retina and make them become photoreceptor cells and make the correct connections in the retina," says Griffith, who himself has retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary condition where light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye degenerates.
"I am pretty lucky in one way because it's a very late onset condition and I have been able to live a relatively normal life. I am 63 now and I can still see quite a lot. I can't drive any more and I'm having trouble reading, but I can function well enough day to day," he says.
He was among the charity's founders 25 years ago, and the focus has since been squarely on research: "We had a small meeting of people who were affected by retinitis pigmentosa and their families and we got together to see what we could do to help each other and do anything to expedite therapy."
Fighting Blindness currently funds research at six universities around the State, but setting up a new institute is a dramatic new departure for a patient-led organisation, notes Griffith.
"We have rented laboratories at DCU and we plan to put a group of scientists in there almost immediately," he says. "It's a very exciting concept because it's something completely new, it hasn't been done by a charity or patient organisation in this country. I would imagine you wouldn't find anything like it even throughout Europe, that a patient organisation would establish its own research institute."
Fighting Blindness is currently in discussion with an international stem-cell expert to lead the research at DCU and it plans to link its existing research groups here with the new institute. With luck, people with degenerative eye conditions could be reaping the benefits within a decade, according to Griffith.
"If you had asked me two years ago, I would have said maybe in 20 years we can do something for people," he says.
"But then I asked a leading US retinal stem-cell researcher the same question, expecting to hear 20 years, and he said he would like to think we would be in human clinical trials within five years."
Fighting Blindness is seed funding the new institute and hopes that as it develops it will be able to secure money from State agencies to build the research there, says Griffith. "DCU has been very good to us, and we will continue to seed fund it all the time but obviously there's a limit to what a charity can do."
The 570 members of Fighting Blindness are encouraged by the new institute, according to Avril Daly, the charity's head of public affairs.
"I think it's a wonderful step for our patients ultimately," she says. "We are a research charity but we are very much patient-led. Our members are excited about this and understand that it is a very long process but this would give them great hope. We are trying to solve a problem here. We know it's not going to be easy but we are prepared to go the distance and this is a giant leap forward for us."
For further information, log on to www.fightingblindness.ie
