Plasticity of the human visual system after retinal gene therapy in patients with Leber's congenital amaurosis.

ABSTRACT: Much of our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying plasticity in the visual cortex in response to visual impairment, vision restoration, and environmental interactions comes from animal studies. We evaluated human brain plasticity in a group of patients with Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA), who regained vision through gene therapy. Using non-invasive multimodal neuroimaging methods, we demonstrated that reversing blindness with gene therapy promoted long-term structural plasticity in the visual pathways emanating from the treated retina of LCA patients. The data revealed improvements and normalization along the visual fibers corresponding to the site of retinal injection of the gene therapy vector carrying the therapeutic gene in the treated eye compared to the visual pathway for the un

SUBMITTER: Ashtari M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4617524 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature