Claim: Stem Cell Injection May Soon Reverse Vision Loss Caused By Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Choroideremia
text: choroideremia is an ideal candidate for gene therapy there are other potential therapies that could restore vision after it has been lost later in life. Foremost of these is stem cell therapy. A clinical trial published in 2014 found that a subretinal injection of human embryonic stem cells in patients with age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt disease was safe and improved vision in most patients. Out of 18 patients, vision improved in 10, improved or remained the same in 7, and decreased in 1 patient, while no improvement was seen in the untreated eyes. The study found "no evidence of

title: Induced pluripotent stem cell
text: from six patients suffering from wet age-related macular degeneration were reprogrammed to differentiate into retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. The cell sheet would be transplanted into the affected retina where the degenerated RPE tissue was excised. Safety and vision restoration monitoring were to last one to three years. In March 2017 a team led by Masayo Takahashi completed the first successful transplant of iPS-derived retinal cells from a donor into the eye of a person with advanced macular degeneration. However it was reported that they are now having complications. The benefits of using autologous iPSCs are that there is theoretically

title: Human embryonic stem cells clinical trials
text: to restart the embryonic stem cell-based clinical trial for spinal cord injury. Two clinical trials involving derivatives of human embryonic stem cells were approved in 2010. Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, leads the trials aimed at improving the vision of patients with Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy and Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Originally, twelve patients were estimated to enroll at three hospitals in the U.S.; participating institutions included the Casey Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon, University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worchester, Massachusetts, and the New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey. Patients' eyes were injected with

title: Induced stem cells
text: iPSCs for cell therapy of the people with age-related macular degeneration, a disease causing blindness through retina damaging, will begin. There are several articles describing methods for producing retinal cells from iPSCs and how to use them for cell therapy. Reports of iPSC-derived retinal pigmented epithelium transplantation showed enhanced visual-guided behaviors of experimental animals for 6 weeks after transplantation. However, clinical trials have been successful: ten patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa have had their eyesight restored – including a woman who had only 17 percent of her vision left. Chronic lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and cystic fibrosis

title: Stem-cell therapy
text: cells with the use of embryonic stem cells. Since 2003, researchers have successfully transplanted corneal stem cells into damaged eyes to restore vision. "Sheets of retinal cells used by the team are harvested from aborted fetuses, which some people find objectionable." When these sheets are transplanted over the damaged cornea, the stem cells stimulate renewed repair, eventually restore vision. The latest such development was in June 2005, when researchers at the Queen Victoria Hospital of Sussex, England were able to restore the sight of forty people using the same technique. The group, led by Sheraz Daya, was able to successfully

title: Mark S. Humayun
text: Europe. It was approved by the FDA in February 2013. The first USC Eye Institute patient received the implant post-FDA approval in June 2014, and saw light one week following activation of device. Humayun is one of two principal investigators working with USC Eye Institute researchers to study how to replace damaged retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells with stem cells to restore sight, a potential cure for age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of permanent impairment of reading and fine or close-up vision among people aged 65 years and older. This research is funded by a grant from California Institute

title: Acute visual loss
text: laser treatment to the iris may prevent blindness. Wet macular degeneration should be considered in older people with new distortion of their vision with bleeding in the macula. Vision can often be regained with prompt eye injections with anti-VEGF agents. Giant cell arteritis should be considered in an older person with jaw claudication, temporal pain, and feeling tired. Placing the person on steroids might save both their vision and decrease their risk of stroke. Without treatment a person can quickly go blind in both eyes. Acute visual loss Acute visual loss is a rapid loss of the ability to see.

title: Foundation Fighting Blindness
text: who need it. Foundation-funded researchers are using stem cells derived from a variety of sources, including a person’s own skin, to create healthy retinal cells that can potentially restore vision. Stem cell treatments hold great promise for people with advanced vision loss. The Foundation is also funding clinical trials of a tiny innovative capsule that is inserted into the eye to slow vision loss from a variety of retinal degenerative diseases. The Foundation Fighting Blindness Clinical Research Institute works to accelerate the translation of laboratory-based research into clinical trials for treatments and cures of retinal degenerative diseases. As a support

title: Stargardt disease
text: not restore impaired vision back to normal. The research is being undertaken by a partnership between Sanofi and Oxford BioMedica. A Lentiviral vector is used to deliverer normal genes to the eye via a subretinal injection. The therapy is known as SAR422459 and it is in Phase I/II trials at present (2018). Stem-cell therapy involves injecting cells with the potential to mature into differentiated and functioning retinal cells. This therapy has the potential stop disease progression and in the long term improve vision. To improve vision this technique will need to replicate the complex multi-layered and neurally anatomy of the

title: Robert Lanza
text: proteins. Lanza's team at Advanced Cell Technology were able to generate retinal pigmented epithelium cells from stem cells, and subsequent studies found that these cells could restore vision in animal models of macular degeneration. In 2009 Geron became the first company that received approval for a clinical trial of an embryonic stem cell-based treatment for use in people with spinal cord injury; in 2010 ACT received the second FDA approval to use its ESC-based cell therapy for Stargardt disease. In 2011 ACT received approval in the UK to expand the Stargart trial there; this was the first approval to study

title: Retinitis pigmentosa
text: Columbia University Medical Center showed on an animal model that gene therapy and induced pluripotent stem cell therapy may be viable options for treating retinitis pigmentosa in the future. 2012: Scientists at the University of Miami Bascom Palmer Eye Institute presented data showing protection of photoreceptors in an animal model when eyes were injected with mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF). Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley were able to restore vision to blind mice by exploiting a "photoswitch" that activates retinal ganglion cells in animals with damaged rod and cone cells. 2015: A study by Bakondi et al. at

title: Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine
text: trial using embryonic stem cells to regenerate retinal pigment epithelium to treat Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Dry AMD). Dry AMD is the most common form of macular degeneration and represents a market size of $25–30 Billion in the U.S. and Europe. In November 2010 the FDA allowed Ocata to begin a Phase I/II human clinical trial to use its retinal pigment epithelium cell therapy to treat Stargardt disease, a form of inherited juvenile macular degeneration. Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine is a subsidiary of Astellas Pharma located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, developing stem cell therapies with

title: Macular degeneration
text: typically occurs in older people. Genetic factors and smoking also play a role. It is due to damage to the macula of the retina. Diagnosis is by a complete eye exam. The severity is divided into early, intermediate, and late types. The late type is additionally divided into "dry" and "wet" forms with the dry form making up 90% of cases. Preventive efforts include exercising, eating well, and not smoking. Antioxidant vitamins and minerals do not appear to be useful for prevention. There is no cure or treatment that returns vision already lost. In the wet form, anti-VEGF medication injected

title: Macular degeneration
text: "wet" form of advanced AMD, causes vision loss due to abnormal blood vessel growth (choroidal neovascularization) in the choriocapillaris, through Bruch's membrane. It is usually, but not always, preceded by the dry form of AMD. The proliferation of abnormal blood vessels in the retina is stimulated by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Unfortunately, because these blood vessels are abnormal, these new vessels are fragile, ultimately leading to blood and protein leakage below the macula. Bleeding, leaking, and scarring from these blood vessels eventually cause irreversible damage to the photoreceptors and rapid vision loss if left untreated. Age-related accumulation of low-molecular-weight,

title: Gene therapy of the human retina
text: researchers have been developing similar treatments using adeno-associated virus for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). To date, efforts have focused on long-term delivery of VEGF inhibitors to treat the wet form of macular degeneration. Whereas wet AMD is currently treated using frequent injections of recombinant protein into the eyeball, the goal of these treatments is long-term disease management following a single administration. One such study is being conducted at the Lions Eye Institute in Australia in collaboration with Avalanche Biotechnologies, a US-based biotechnology start-up. Another early-stage study is sponsored by Genzyme Corporation. In October 2011, the first clinical trial was announced

title: Masayo Takahashi
text: created by removing mature cells from an individual and reprogramming these cells back to an embryonic state. The retinal sheet was transplanted into a female patient in her 70s with age related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye complication that blurs the central field of vision and can progress into blindness. The iPS cells were hoped to stop the progression of AMD. Her and her research team used iPS cells made from the patient’s own skin cells. Then in March she and her team carried out the world’s first transplant of retinal cells created from donor iPS cells. Time and cost

title: UCL Institute of Ophthalmology
text: and £6.5 million from the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. In April 2008 the results of the world's first successful gene transplant for blindness trial, carried out by a team at the Institute and Moorfields Eye Hospital, were published. In April 2009, the Institute entered into a collaboration and license agreement with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer focused on gaining understanding into how to develop stem cell-based therapies for age-related macular degeneration. In the same month, details were published of the world's first stell cell based procedure for age-related macular degeneration, developed by researchers at the Institute and Moorfields Eye Hospital. In September

title: Ageing
text: brain's myelinated axons. Age can result in visual impairment, whereby non-verbal communication is reduced, which can lead to isolation and possible depression. Macular degeneration causes vision loss and increases with age, affecting nearly 12% of those above the age of 80. This degeneration is caused by systemic changes in the circulation of waste products and by growth of abnormal vessels around the retina. A distinction can be made between "proximal ageing" (age-based effects that come about because of factors in the recent past) and "distal ageing" (age-based differences that can be traced to a cause in person's early life, such

title: Lions Eye Institute
text: Eye Institute (USA). For example, the LEI participates in joint research and development projects with the American Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, University of Missouri and the National Eye Institute (USA). Research carried out by the Institute teams led to the first retinal vein bypass treatment of blockages, and the development of the first transgenic mouse model for Age-Related Macular Degeneration, the leading cause of blindness for people over 55. This model is expected to accelerate the development of ARMD leading to an effective treatment. At the LEI, the first artificial cornea, the AlphaCor was developed and

title: PSMD1
text: Rpn2 in 15 macula degeneration patients compared to the control subjects, suggesting that this protein could be a biomarker for this condition. Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the world. Evidence is accumulating that the suppression of the UPS contributes to the increase of toxic proteins and inflammation in retina pigment epithelium, the functional abnormalities and/or the degeneration of which are believed to be the initiators and major pathologies of macula degeneration. There are only limited options for the treatment of macular degeneration, thus early identification of susceptibility and preventive measures are important therapeutic strategies. New