Retinitis Pigmentosa News and Research RSS Feed - Retinitis Pigmentosa News and Research

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is the name given to a group of inherited eye diseases that affect the retina (the light-sensitive part of the eye). RP causes the breakdown of photoreceptor cells (cells in the retina that detect light). Photoreceptor cells capture and process light helping us to see. As these cells breakdown and die, patients experience progressive vision loss. The most common feature of all forms of RP is a gradual breakdown of rods (retinal cells that detect dim light) and cones (retinal cells that detect light and color). Most forms of RP first cause the breakdown of rod cells. These forms of RP, sometimes called rod-cone dystrophy, usually begin with night blindness. Night blindness is somewhat like the experience normally sighted individuals encounter when entering a dark movie theatre on a bright, sunny day. However, patients with RP cannot adjust well to dark and dimly lit environments.
Ceregene announces top-line data from CERE-12 Phase 2b clinical study for Parkinson's disease

Ceregene announces top-line data from CERE-12 Phase 2b clinical study for Parkinson's disease

Ceregene, Inc. today announced the top-line data from its double-blind, randomized, controlled Phase 2b clinical study of CERE-120 (AAV-neurturin), a gene therapy product designed to deliver the neurotrophic factor neurturin, for Parkinson's disease. [More]
Tacere Therapeutics submits TT-034 clinical trial application to Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee

Tacere Therapeutics submits TT-034 clinical trial application to Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee

RNAi-based therapeutics company Benitec Biopharma Limited today announced that the company's wholly owned US subsidiary, Tacere Therapeutics Inc., has submitted an application to the US National Institutes of Health's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. [More]
Benitec to conduct phase I/II clinical trial of TT-034 in patients with HCV in UCSD site

Benitec to conduct phase I/II clinical trial of TT-034 in patients with HCV in UCSD site

RNAi-based therapeutics company Benitec Biopharma Limited today announced the selection of the University of California, San Diego, Health Sciences as the second site for its upcoming phase I/II first-in-man trial for TT-034 in Hepatitis C infections. [More]
GenSight Biologics announces closing of €32 million Series A financing

GenSight Biologics announces closing of €32 million Series A financing

GenSight Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of ophthalmic therapeutics using gene therapy, announced today the closing of a €32 million Series A financing. [More]
Study shows co-administration of Cialis, finasteride meets primary endpoint in men with LUTS/BPH

Study shows co-administration of Cialis, finasteride meets primary endpoint in men with LUTS/BPH

Eli Lilly and Company presented results today at the annual European Association of Urology Congress in Milan, Italy, of a study that showed Cialis 5 mg once daily co-administered with finasteride significantly improved scores on the International Prostate Symptom Score, compared to placebo/finasteride, in men with lower urinary tract symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia and enlarged prostates. [More]
R-Tech Ueno enrolls retinitis pigmentosa patients in Phase 3 clinical study of UF-021 ophthalmic solution

R-Tech Ueno enrolls retinitis pigmentosa patients in Phase 3 clinical study of UF-021 ophthalmic solution

R-Tech Ueno is pleased to announce the start of the patient enrollment of a Phase 3 clinical study with Unoprostone (development code UF-021) ophthalmic solution that are being developed in our company for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa. [More]
Wayne State receives U.S. patent allowance for vision restoration technology

Wayne State receives U.S. patent allowance for vision restoration technology

Technology to restore vision through the use of a component of green algae developed by Dr. Zhou-Han Pan, professor and scientific director of the Ligon Research Center of Vision at the Kresge Eye Institute at Wayne State University, and licensed to RetroSense Therapeutics, a biotechnology company dedicated to developing gene therapy approaches to vision restoration, announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for U.S. patent application (No. 12/299,574). [More]
Pediatric blindness etiology varies around the globe

Pediatric blindness etiology varies around the globe

The causes and prevalence of blindness in children vary markedly by geography, presumably as a proxy for socioeconomic factors influencing prevention and treatment schemes, conclude the authors of a literature review. [More]

Second Sight Medical Products receives FDA approval for Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, the first implanted device to treat adult patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa (RP). [More]

Reprogramming eye cells that enable night vision may one day treat retinitis pigmentosa

Doctors may one day treat some forms of blindness by altering the genetic program of the light-sensing cells of the eye, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. [More]
Two recent experimental treatments improve visual function in mouse models of retinitis pigmentosa

Two recent experimental treatments improve visual function in mouse models of retinitis pigmentosa

Two recent experimental treatments - one involving skin-derived induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell grafts, the other gene therapy - have been shown to produce long-term improvement in visual function in mouse models of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), according to the Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) scientists who led the studies. At present, there is no cure for RP, the most common form of inherited blindness. [More]
Carnosic acid promotes eye health

Carnosic acid promotes eye health

Herbs widely used throughout history in Asian and early European cultures have received renewed attention by Western medicine in recent years. Scientists are now isolating the active compounds in many medicinal herbs and documenting their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. In a study published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D. and colleagues at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) report that carnosic acid, a component of the herb rosemary, promotes eye health. [More]
Researchers stream braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina

Researchers stream braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina

For the very first time researchers have streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with an ocular neuroprosthetic device. [More]

Corneal limbal stromal cells could lead to new treatments for eye conditions

Eye experts and scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered specific cells in the eye which could lead to a new procedure to treat and cure blinding eye conditions. [More]
Lilly receives EC approval for Cialis to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia

Lilly receives EC approval for Cialis to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia

Eli Lilly and Company announced today that the European Commission has approved Cialis 5 mg for once daily use for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). [More]

FDA panel recommends U.S. approval for Second Sight’s Argus II bionic eye

On Friday September 28th, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Ophthalmic Devices Advisory Panel unanimously voted 19-0 that the probable benefit of the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System outweighs the risks to health, an important step toward the FDA market approval of this product manufactured by Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. [More]
Experimental stem cell treatment improves vision in blind mice

Experimental stem cell treatment improves vision in blind mice

An experimental treatment for blindness, developed from a patient's skin cells, improved the vision of blind mice in a study conducted by Columbia ophthalmologists and stem cell researchers. [More]
UC Irvine receives CIRM grant to advance stem cell-based treatments for AD, retinitis pigmentosa

UC Irvine receives CIRM grant to advance stem cell-based treatments for AD, retinitis pigmentosa

Efforts to begin human clinical trials using stem cells to treat Alzheimer's disease and retinitis pigmentosa received a $37.3 million boost from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine during its most recent round of funding on Sept. 5. [More]

Gene therapy approach restores ability to smell in mouse model of congenital anosmia

Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have restored the ability to smell in a mouse model of a human genetic disorder that causes congenital anosmia-the inability to smell from birth. The approach uses gene therapy to regrow cilia, cell structures that are essential for olfactory function. [More]

Scientists restore sense of smell in mice through gene therapy

Scientists have restored the sense of smell in mice through gene therapy for the first time -- a hopeful sign for people who can't smell anything from birth or lose it due to disease. [More]