Scientists at Stanford University in the United States, recently published a study that shows the effectiveness of a new technology capable of recovering part of the vision of people affected by macular degeneration, a condition that damages the central area of the retina called “macula” and causes partial loss of peripheral vision in patients.
The technique was described in a study for the scientific journal Nature Communications. The group of scientists explains that the treatment for this eye problem is based on the implantation of a chip in the patient’s eye that replaces the photoreceptor cells affected by the disease and the use of special glasses that send image signals to the device.
Photo credits: Yannick Le Mer
Daniel Palanker, the senior author of the study and professor of ophthalmology at Stanford, says the latest experiments are “very encouraging news” as previous tests had shown unsatisfactory results. Previously, the images sent to patients’ brains were very distorted, but the new predictions are more optimistic.
To understand the treatment, it is necessary to know the condition — macular degeneration can occur due to deterioration of the macula or the growth of blood vessels under the retina, causing the death of photoreceptor cells responsible for detecting light and sending image signals to the brain and, consequently, making coherent vision impossible.
With that, Palanker and his team of scientists developed the prosthesis based on a chip that replaces the damaged area and assumes the role of a photoreceptor unit, converting light into electrical currents that connect to the retina’s neural network, recovering the peripheral vision capacity of the retina. patients.
The chip measuring just two millimeters — 12 times smaller than an inch — works in conjunction with a pair of special glasses equipped with a camera that produces a beam of light aimed at the implanted device. Experts point out that for the device to work, it is necessary that the ocular nerves are intact.
Patients who received the implant regained the ability to identify large letters, which Palanker says is a great proof of concept, but there is still room for improvement in image resolution. The study leader expects to get an improvement of over 20% with the next experiments.
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