Blind Rats Can Regain Vision With Nanotech Injections
Year 2020 face_with_colon_three
A team of international scientists has restored vision to blind rats by using an artificial retina made from nanoparticles that can be directly injected into the eye. The science breakthrough was successfully demonstrated over an eight-month period without surgery. Although the research is in its early stages, the results suggest that it may be possible one day to treat eye disorders with conjugated polymer microparticles (P3HT NP). These problems range from hereditary macular degeneration to age-related retinal dystrophies.
Fabio Benfenati is the research director of the Italian Institute of Technology. He told Digital Trends that the P3HT nanoparticles in the \”liquid retina device\” spread over the subretinal area and activated the inner retinal cells spared by light. This led to the recovery of subcortical visual responses, as well as cortical and behavior-based responses. P3HT-NPs are a promising new option for retinal prosthetics.
Retinal prostheses are implantable devices designed to restore vision to patients suffering from retinal degeneration. The retina is stimulated electrically to introduce visual information. Current retinal prostheses, while promising, have only been shown to provide low-resolution visual information: useful for simple tasks like distinguishing light from dark or recognising simple shapes and objects. This new nanotech method appears to be more promising and offers a significantly higher level of resolution. The activity of the visual cortex in rats and their visual acuity were identical to those in healthy rats after just one injection.
Source:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/nanoparticle-blind-rat-vision/
