Genetic Engineering to Cure Color Blindness
Scientists say they are a step closer to curing colour blindness using gene therapy. A US team were able to restore full colour vision to adult monkeys born without the ability to distinguish between the colours red and green….
Until now scientists had not thought it was possible to manipulate the adult brain in this way. It was considered that adding new sensory information, such as the visual receptors necessary for perfect colour vision, could only be done in the earliest years of life when the brain is at its most malleable or “plastic”.
But Professor Jay Neitz and his team were able to introduce therapeutic genes into the light-sensing cells at the back of the eye of adult male squirrel monkeys.
The therapeutic genes contained the necessary DNA code to enable the light-sensing cells to distinguish between red and green - something lacking in the male monkeys. Tests revealed the gene therapy was a success. The male monkeys now possessed the necessary photopigments to see all colours and were able to correctly pick out red from green on computer image tests. The monkeys were treated over two years ago and their improvement in colour vision has remained stable since…. (more @ BBC News)
