Can we ever cure blindness?

A 46-year-old man called Miikka spotted a simple spelling mistake. A group of scientists had misspelled his name as Mika. He told them as much, and they responded with delight. Why? It was the clearest evidence yet that Miikka, who had been blind for many years, might be able to see again. 

This miracle is thanks to a pioneering chip implanted in his retina. Just as cochlear implants have restored hearing to people once considered deaf, devices like this are being developed that can restore sight to the blind.

Miikka suffers from a particular form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease that gradually destroys the light-detecting cells of the retina. As the cells die, a person’s field of view begins to collapse from the edges. Miikka’s case was so advanced that he could only sense the direction of a bright light, and he needed a cane to get around.

Click here to read more of this interesting and comprehensive article in Discover magazine on the various experiments being undertaken to try to find a cure for blindness. The points raised were touched on our speaker Mandeep Singh in a MDS event earlier this month. 

New MDS committee

The Macular Degeneration Society held its fifth Annual General Meeting last Saturday at the Old Alexandra Hospital. Yes, we are five years old! 

The committee members were re-elected to another two-year term. They are Sharon Siddique, Peh Shing Huei, Lee Soo Mien, Anny Leow, Kym Ong and Lim Hsiu Mei. Sharon and Shing Huei stay on as president and secretary of the society respectively. Soo Mien replaces Kym as the treasurer. Our constitution stipulates that the treasurer cannot serve more than one term consecutively. 

No new members came forward to join the committee as volunteers. We hope interested members can consider helping us to grow MDS, build awareness of macular degeneration and contribute to the education of Singaporeans on this little-known eye disease. 

Drop anyone of the committee members an e-mail if you are interested. You can find our e-mail addresses and our profiles on the MDS website. Thanks. 

Cautious optimism towards stem cell treatments

We are on the way but it will take a few more years of scientific research before stem cells can be available as treatment for patients, said ophthalmologist Mandeep Singh in a talk to the Macular Degeneration Society members in Singapore last Saturday. 

The Singaporean researcher at Oxford University sounded an upbeat, but cautious, note, urging MDS members to be very cautious about pursuing stem cell treatments at this time, as many of these are still in the research phase and not yet fully approved for clinical use.

It was the first time the MDS has had a talk on stem cell therapy, which has been making strong progress in recent years in the treatment of blindness due to retinal degeneration. 

Dr Mandeep Singh is a consultant in the Department of Ophthalmology of the National University Hospital in Singapore. He is currently pursuing a PhD in ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. 

Among other reasons, he shared with the 35 members that he left for UK to do research on stem cells after learning that more than 50 per cent of the blindness in the developed world is caused by damage of one cell type in the eye. It was clear, he said, that the way forward to treating blindness will lie with cell therapy.

Here are some key points he shared with us: 

1) The world's embryonic stem cells trial on a human was for the eye. It took place in January this year. Click here to read more.   

2) There are two main ways which we want stem cells to help the eye - rescue and replace. Rescue means to slow the decline of the degeneration and replace is to bring functioning vision back. 

3) What has been done? The rescue method has been tried. It is still too early to know the results. 

4) What do we not want the stem cells to do? Create an immune reaction. Stem cells are foreign objects introduced into the body and the body will rebel and fight it. If the reaction is severe, it could damage the body and even your pre-existing cells. 

5) What else do we not want the stem cells to do? Lead to cancer cells. Click here to read more on this.

6) A new exciting sub-field has been the development in iPS cells, or Induced pluripotent stem cells, which is to take an adult cell (as opposed to an embryonic cell and its accompanied ethical concerns) and try to "record backwards", bringing back the original "baby cell". This research started about five years ago and is moving forward. 

7) When reading articles and internet information about stem cells, be careful to see how factual the content is and how much is based on good scientific evidence. There may be dangerous side effects if non-approved treatments are given, in centres which are not regulated well. Some may say that there are many commercial interests in this field so it may be good to be slightly wary. Click here to read a South China Morning Post feature on the untested and wild "stem cell treatments" offered in China.

8) In short, are proper, legalised and approved stem cells treatment available in clinic for the retina now? No. Should we seek for such "miracle" treatment today? No. But we are on the way. 

9) Quote of the day: "Only listen to some guy who sounds a little scared."