Specially treated stem cells derived from a single individual have been successfully implanted into that same individuals eyes in a first-of-its-kind clinical trial testing ways to treat advanced dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The therapy, currently in its first phase of testing to ensure that its safe for humans, involves harvesting and processing a persons blood cells and using them to replace the persons retinal cells that had succumbed to AMD, a leading cause of vision loss globally.

The procedure was performed by researchers from the National Eye Institute (NEI), a branch of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and from the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. The NIH researchers have been working on the new treatment for a decade.

The scientists, who previously demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of the therapy in rats and pigs, took blood cells from the patient and, in the laboratory, converted them into patient-derived induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. These immature, undifferentiated cells have no assigned function in the body, which means they can assume many forms. The researchers programmed these particular iPS cells to become retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, the type that die in AMD and lead to late-stage dry AMD.

In healthy eyes, RPE cells supply oxygen to photoreceptors, the light-sensing cells in the retina at the back of the eyeball. The death of RPE cells virtually dooms the photoreceptors, resulting in vision loss. The idea behind the new therapy is to replace dying RPE cells with patient-derived induced iPS ones, strengthening the health of the remaining photoreceptors.

Before being transplanted, the iPS-derived cells were grown in sheets one cell thick on a biodegradable scaffold designed to promote their integration into the retina. The researchers positioned the resulting patch between atrophied host RPE cells and the photoreceptors using a specially created surgical tool.

The patient received the transplanted cells during the summer and will be followed for a year as researchers monitor overall eye health, including retina stability, and whether any inflammation or bleeding develop, says Kapil Bharti, PhD, a senior investigator at the NEI and for the clinical trial.

Safety data are critical for any new drug, says Gareth Lema, MD, PhD, a vitreoretinal surgeon at New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, a division of the Mount Sinai Health System. Stem cells have added complexity in that they are living tissue, Dr. Lema says. Precise differentiation is necessary for them to fulfill their intended therapeutic effect and not cause harm."

This therapy also requires a surgical procedure to implant the cells, Lema says, adding that its an exquisitely elegant surgery, but introduces further risk of harm. For those reasons, he says, Patients must know that ocular stem cell therapies should only be attempted within the regulated environment of a nationally registered clinical trial.

The rules of a clinical trial dont generally allow specifics to be discussed this early in the process, says Dr. Bharti. Announcing that we were able to successfully transplant the cells now hopefully allows us to recruit more patients, since we can take up to 12 in this phase, he says. We also hope that it will give some optimism to patients with dry AMD and to researchers studying it.

It took seven months to develop the implanted cells, says Bharti, and although the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the clinical trial in 2019, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the start by two years, he says.

Macular degeneration comprises several stages of disease within the macula, the critical portion of the retina responsible for straight-ahead vision. Aging causes retinal cells to deteriorate, generating debris, or drusen, within the macula, setting the stage for early (aka dry) AMD. Geographic atrophy represents a more advanced stage. If the disease progresses to the relatively rare wet AMD, so named for the leaking of blood into the macula, central vision can be snuffed out.

Risk of AMD increases with age, particularly among people who are white, have a history of smoking, or have a family history of the disease.

Treatment to slow wet AMDs progression includes eye injections with anti-VEGF (or VEGF-A for vascular endothelial growth factor antagonists), a medication that halts the growth of unstable, leaky blood vessels in the eye. Some people may undergo photodynamic therapy, which combines injections and laser treatments.

Currently, there is no cure for dry AMD; it cant be reversed. Nor are there treatments to reliably stop its onset or progression for everyone at every stage of the disease. (Research has confirmed that a specialized blend of vitamins and minerals, available over the counter as AREDS, or Age-Related Eye Disease Studies supplements, reduces the risk of AMDs progression from intermediate to advanced stages.)

There are other, ongoing clinical trials for the treatment of dry AMD. Regenerative Patch Technologies, in Menlo Park, California, for example, is a little further along in testing a different stem cell treatment. Patients have been followed for three years, and 27 percent have shown vision improvement, says Jane Lebkowski, PhD, the companys president. There are a number of AMD clinical trials ongoing in the U.S., and patients should ask their ophthalmologists about trials that might be appropriate.

ClinicalTrials.gov, the NIHs clinical trials database, lists close to 300 AMD clinical trials at various stages in the United States.

Ferhina Ali, MD, MPH, a retinal specialist at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, who isnt involved in the trial, describes the newest stem cell therapy as elegant and pioneering. These are early stages but there is tremendous potential as a first-in-kind surgically implanted stem cell therapy and as a way to achieve vision gains in dry macular degeneration, Dr. Ali says.

Bharti says that in laboratory animals the implanted cells behaved as retinal cells should maintaining the retinas integrity. Over the next few years, he and his colleagues will determine whether they function effectively in humans.

Does that mean, however, that the same AMD disease process that destroyed the original retinal cells could destroy the transplanted ones? It takes 40 to 60 years to damage human cells, Bharti says, and if we get that long with the transplanted cells, well take it.

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Implanting a Patient's Own Reprogrammed Stem Cells Shows Early Positive Results for Treating Dry AMD - Everyday Health