Artificial visual prosthesis for retinal degenerative diseases:translational situations, challenges and prospects / 中华实验眼科杂志

ABSTRACT

Although retinal degenerative diseases (RDD) has different pathogenesis backgrounds,the pathological basis is quite close.Either inheritance RDD or age-related RDD remains the largest cause of untreatable blindness in developed countries.Encompassing a range of causes ultimately result in the loss of the sensory cells of the retina and photoreceptors.Many therapeutic strategies aim to slow down the progression of RDD.However,it is well known that once photoreceptors are lost,they can not regenerate.So the treatment is currently unavailable to severe patients with retinal pigmentosa (RP) and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).A visual prosthetic device appears to offer new hope in replacing the function of degenerating or dead photoreceptor neurons and relevant studies are making progress.Some visual prosthetic devices have been approved by American FDA and entered clinical trials.Fewer researchers in China are participating in relevant work.I suggest that our researchers interested in artificial visual prosthesis should have a strong understanding of the current research and multi-disciplinary combination and moreover attend the clinical translational study of artificial visual prosthesis for RDD.