Seeing it Through: An Overview of Retinal Degeneration and Future Treatments

Seeing it Through: An Overview of Retinal Degeneration and Future Treatments

Degenerative retinal diseases are, to date, largely untreatable – a shortcoming born of the complexity of the nervous system and our finite understanding. Retinitis pigmentosa (a group of inherited eye disease of the retina) scuttles about the family tree relatively unchecked, slowly and silently impairing vision in 1.5 million people worldwide. Comparatively, macular degeneration, an age-related kin of retinitis pigmentosa, afflicts sufferers on a magnitude of roughly 20 diagnoses per hour within the United States alone. Such degenerative diseases almost always culminate in the death of rod and cone photoreceptor cells along with the accompanying loss of visual capacity. This literature review primarily focuses on the adaptation of three specialized cell types that have yielded promising results in the direction of retinal repair. Not unlike other proposed nervous system repairs, the ubiquitous embryonic stem cell has demonstrated its value as a prospective contributor towards the development of photoreceptors in a controlled environment. Additionally, as the long speculated factor underlying fish retina regeneration, Müller glial cells have shown a competency to restore damaged retinal neurons. More recently, researchers have also uncovered the significance of photoreceptor precursors in mouse models of degenerating retinas. As continuing studies of these particular cells are underway, it is with certain hopefulness that innovative therapies will take form and inaugurate the beginning of restored sight.