A Trial of Stem Cell Treatment for Macular Degeneration

Researchers here report on another trial of embryonic stem cells, with a focus on demonstrating safety and absence of side-effects. The study size of four individuals, each given the treatment in one eye only, is too small to take the positive results as a sign that the treatment is effective enough to take to the clinic. The outcome is encouraging nonetheless:

Since their discovery and isolation in 1998, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have been considered a potentially valuable tool for generating replacement cells for therapeutic purposes. However, despite success in numerous animal models, fears over tumorigenicity and immunogenicity, coupled with ethical concerns, and inefficiencies in differentiation methods have all contributed to delays in carrying out human clinical trials. Only one group has reported the results of the safety and possible biological activity of embryonic stem cell progeny in individuals with any disease, but these investigators only enrolled patients who were mostly Caucasian. Here, we confirmed the potential safety and efficacy of hESC-derived cells in Asian patients.

Loss of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is an important part of the disease process in several retinal disorders, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Stargardt macular dystrophy (SMD). Animal studies have shown that hESC-derived RPE cell transplantation can rescue photoreceptors, resulting in the improvement of visual functions in RPE-oriented retinal degeneration models. Clinical trials of hESC-derived RPE cell transplantation have begun recently in the United States and Europe. Herein, we report on four Asian patients with macular degeneration (two with AMD and two with SMD) who underwent subretinal transplantation of hESC-derived RPE and were followed for 1 year to assess safety and tolerability.

In the two dry-AMD patients, visual acuity in the treated eyes improved by one letter (stable at counting fingers at 4 ft) and nine letters (a two-line improvement from 20/320 to 20/200) at 52 weeks, respectively. In contrast, the fellow (untreated) eyes decreased by 6 and 20 letters, respectively, during the same time period. In the two SMD patients, visual acuity improved in the treated eyes by 12 letters (counting fingers at 2 ft to 20/640) and 19 letters (a four-line improvement from 20/640 to 20/250), respectively, compared with nine letters of improvement in the fellow eyes at 52 weeks compared to baseline. The visual acuity improvement noted in the fellow eyes of SMD patients may be due to poorer baseline visual acuity than in the fellow eyes of the dry AMD patients. A 15-letter improvement (a doubling of the visual angle) is generally accepted as a clinically significant change.

Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2015.04.005