Overview of current cell therapies against blindness

Reprogramming donor cells into photoreceptors, retinal implants, eye cell transplants: several approaches converge towards concrete treatments for blindness.

Several therapeutic avenues are progressing in parallel to treat forms of blindness that have been incurable until now. To combat retinitis pigmentosa, which affects about 1.5 million people worldwide, the biotech company BlueRock Therapeutics is testing OpCT-001, a therapy that reprograms donor cells into functional photoreceptors for transplantation into the retina.

For age-related macular degeneration in its dry form, which affects about 20 million people in the United States, several trials combine retinal implants, pigment epithelial cell transplants and optogenetic gene therapies. Some retinal implant trials are already reporting significant visual improvements in a majority of treated patients, pointing to a new generation of treatments for vision loss.