4/26/2011 PERMALINK
Viruses can deliver light-sensitive proteins to specific cells in the retinas of blind mice, allowing rudimentary vision, according to new research. To restore vision, researcher Alan Horsager of the University of Southern California and collaborators applied optogenetics, a genetic mod that makes neurons sensitive to light. They used a designer virus to deliver lots of copies of a gene that codes for a protein called channelrhodopsin to the eye. Previous studies had shown that the light-sensitive proteins can be beneficial, but the delivery methods used in those experiments were not practical for humans. The viral-delivery method used in this research, however, is similar to methods already successfully used in human gene therapy and should work to restore vision loss in humans due to disease or aging.