The first blind patient in the world is cured by inserting DNA into the eye

The first blind eye surgery by introducing DNA into the eye has given hope to thousands of people who are blinded by genetic errors living in the dark world.

Around the world, thousands of people are born with a faulty gene - the cause of their blindness.

According to the Telegraph, in the UK, about 15,000 people suffer from X-linked recessive (Retinitis Pigmentosa X-linked recessive). This is a disease with genetic factors and causes reduced vision, irreversible, still has no specific treatment and is the leading cause of blindness in young people.

A person with vision loss due to one gene is responsible for maintaining light-sensitive cells on the back of the eye that lose half of the DNA code. But scientists can now replace these codes using a breakthrough technique. Accordingly, they reprogrammed genes in the laboratory and put healthy DNA into the eye through a harmless virus.

With the new technique, doctors believe that it is possible to give light to many patients with safe and effective X chromosomal recessive retinopathy - (Photo: University Of Oxford).

A 29-year-old man in England became the first patient in the world to experience this cycle at Oxford Eye Hospital and is currently recovering.

Robert MacLaren, a professor of ophthalmology at Oxford University, who led the test, said: "He (the patient) has gone home but we will have to wait a few years to know whether this technique helps the retina. whether he stops degenerating or not ".

He said: "The effects of pigmented retinitis on the family are very devastating and we have spent many years studying how to develop this gene therapy. Genetic code changes are always carried out. Cautious, the new sequence that we are using has proven to be highly effective in our laboratory studies. "

The professor explained more about the evil disease: "The genetic code of all life on Earth is made up of four letters - G, T, A and C. However, if you have retinitis pigmentosa then half of the RPGR genes consist of only two letters - A and G. This makes the genes very unstable and prone to mutation, the cause of blindness in patients. RPGR has an important survival frequency. for light sensitive cells on the back of the eye ".

The researchers used harmless viruses to put healthy DNA into the patient's eye - (Photo: University Of Oxford).

Retinitis pigmentosa affects 1/4000 people, with symptoms usually appear early, starting between 10 years and 30 years old.

Night vision and peripheral vision are affected first, when photoreceptors operating in low light start to degenerate. Gradually, the disease affects cones cells - responsible for the center, details, color vision - leading to patients with complete vision loss.

After successful surgery, doctors want at least 24 other patients to participate in the test to make sure the technique is safe and effective.