Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) has confirmed that one of the patient in a clinical trial that it is running for treatment of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness worldwide, has shown a striking improvement in vision.
The patient reportedly had 20/400 vision prior to treatment and now has 20/40 vision after treatment.
ACT uses an embryonic stem cell-based therapy composed of retinal pigmented epithelial cells.
The improvement in vision is unlikely to be due to chance, however it is still unclear how promising this might be from a larger perspective. Indeed the company itself says:
ACT cautions that the improvement in the patient’s vision reported in this press release may not be indicative of future results of clinical trials of the RPE cells derived from hESCs.
Still, this is at the very least, encouraging news, but one patient does not tell the whole story.
For more, check out my interview with ACT CEO Gary Rabin.
The stock is up 17% just today so far.
I do not own stock in ACTC or other related companies.
My only question is have you ever heard an instance where someone with AMD went from legally blind to being able to get their drivers license from one injection in the eye.I think not!
And for the mythologists,what could be more Jesus like than allowing the blind to see.
Enuf said!!!!!!!
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Pingback: One patient's vision went from 20/400 to 20/40, said Lanza. - Page 12
I’ve been able to confirm it is from the dry AMD trial.
In a 2011 video interview, Dr. Lanza had this to say about Blastomere-derived (pre-Blastocyst) ES lines:
“And the only reason this is being used is in this particular trial is that it turns out of all the lines that we have this is the best … it does all these tricks. It’s fantastic. So, it’s just a really great line. … Actually we find that most of these single Blastomere lines seem to have even a greater plasticity than normal embryonic stem cells … because they’re coming from a morula.”
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Also in 2011:
“Our aim is to provide researchers with access to hESC lines, which address many of the concerns which currently relate to research involving human embryonic stem cells,” commented Aidan Courtney, chief executive officer of Roslin Cells. “However, what is more exciting to us is the potential these hESCs hold with respect to their characteristics. Being derived from a point of earlier developmental potential, we anticipate that these single blastomere-derived ES cells will have broad plasticity and be ideally suited for use in the development and commercialization of regenerative medicine therapies.
“Lanza says that his company finds that several of its blastomere-derived lines were more versatile and robust than many others derived from later-stage embryos.”
Source:
(PR: ACT and Roslin Cells Announce Collaboration for Storage and Distribution of Embryonic Stem Cells Using ACT’s Blastomere Technology)
http://www.advancedcell.com/news-and-media/press-releases/act_and_roslin_cells_announce_collaboration_for_storage_and_distribution_of_embryonic_stem_cells_using_acts_blastomere_technology/index.asp