WHEN the owl swooped, the 鈥渂lind鈥� mice ran away. A new type of gene therapy had reprogrammed cells in their eyes to enable them to sense light.
The treated mice ran for cover when played a video of an approaching owl. 鈥淭hey reacted to the owl in the same way as sighted mice, whereas the untreated mice didn鈥檛 do anything,鈥� says of the University of Manchester, UK.
This is his team鈥檚 best evidence yet that injecting the human gene for the pigment rhodopsin into the eyes of blind mice can help them see real objects again. The pigment enables nerve cells deeper in the retina to sense light for themselves (Current Biology, ).
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Unlike in previous studies, these mice could see objects at normal light levels rather than just under extremely bright light.
The approach aims to treat all types of blindness caused by damaged or missing rods and cones 鈥� the eye鈥檚 light-receptor cells. Most gene therapies for blindness so far have focused on replacing faulty genes in rarer, specific forms of inherited blindness.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淏lind mice run off after gene therapy鈥�