Recent animal studies in Austria and the US have provided new insights into restoring sight and treating retinal problems and blindness.

Researchers at Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), studying retinas that had been removed from mice, found that nerve cells in the retina can carry out different tasks for vision.

An analysis of these retinas showed that its nerve cells (called retinal ganglion cells) can produce different signaling patterns to aid in processing signals between the eye and the brain for vision.

In addition, when examining blind mice, the team saw that their retinal ganglion cells had not lost these properties (despite the lack of vision), highlighting the cells’ natural ability to deliver certain signals.

These insights may help the improved development of electronic retinal implants for blind people – retinal diseases are estimated to affect more than 400 million people worldwide.

Meanwhile, in a study led by Mass Eye and Ear, Boston, USA, a new therapy could potentially prevent blindness and scarring from a disease called proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR).

The disease develops as a complication of a detached retina, where the retina becomes loose and must be repaired with surgery.

The therapy’s mRNA component prevents a protein called RUNX1 from being made in cells, blocking the process that turns eye cells into scar tissue.

In patient tissues and also in mice and rabbits that modelled PVR, it helped to stop the development of scars and abnormal blood vessels.

Co-author of the study Leo A. Kim, said: “This therapy is the first to deliver mRNA-based treatments inside the eye… We hope that these early findings can usher in new treatment options for PVR and other eye diseases.”