BLINDNESS CURE COULD SAVE SIGHT OF MILLIONS

“It is in a way a holy grail because it would enable people to get the therapy that probably holds out most hope for people who have the disease. 

"If people can regrow healthy retinal cells then that would be a wonderful thing.”

An American biotech company called Advanced Cell Technology is set to apply for a licence for the trials from the US authorities. 

It is already hopeful that human trials using the same treatment for another form of eye disease, Stargardt’s macular degeneration, will begin by March.

This disease causes progressive damage to the central part of the ­retina, disrupting facial recognition and reading. 

The company’s chief scientific officer, Dr Robert Lanza, said it plans to follow this trial with an application to the US Food and Drug Administration to treat AMD.

He said: “We hope to file a second application for age-related macular degeneration within the next few months. I think we’ve put together a pretty convincing case.”

AMD is caused when tissue at the back of the eye becomes clogged with natural waste products which block vital nutrients from passing into the retina.

This leads to the death of retinal cells and eventual blindness in one or both eyes. In “youthful” eyes, enzymes clear away this debris, but as the ageing process sets in, the body’s natural waste-disposal system becomes weak and unable to deal with its workload.

Some people are more at risk than others due to their age and family ­history, with women and smokers at greatest danger.

Currently there is no effective treatment for “dry” AMD, a less serious form of the disease.

Drugs like Avastin treat the more disabling and aggressive “wet” version but these usually do little more than stabilise the condition.

Barbara McLaughlan, of the Royal National Institute of Blind people, said: “RNIB very much welcomes research into treatments to prevent and possibly cure retinal diseases.

“It is exciting to see that we are getting to the stage when the use of stem cells can be trialled in humans

“A word of caution though. We do not know yet whether this approach will work in people with AMD.

“And if it does we do not know how long it will take for the treatment to become generally available to patients.”

Meanwhile, blind people are being helped to see again with the help of a “bionic” eye.

Three patients at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital are among just 32 in the world taking part in a trial of the revolutionary technology, which uses a camera mounted on a pair of glasses to send wireless signals direct to the brain.