Mount Sinai Doctors Inject 10 Million-Plus Mitochondria Into Woman's Eyes in First Human Vision Test
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Aug 25
Mount Sinai Doctors Inject 10 Million-Plus Mitochondria Into Woman's Eyes in First Human Vision Test
3 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Aug 25
Summary
A 26-year-old woman with near-total blindness after a brain bleed received fresh mitochondria extracted from a thigh-muscle biopsy and injected into both eyes in what researchers describe as the first human ocular mitochondrial transplant.
No serious adverse effects or dangerous immune reaction followed, the key finding in the preprint case report, as doctors used the patient's own mitochondria to limit rejection risk.
Within days, both pupils showed some normal light responses after 45 abnormal readings over the prior 71 days, and brain recordings at days 3, 44 and 45 detected organized visual-cortex activity.
Visual acuity did not improve beyond light perception, and the pupil effects faded by day 39, leaving the single-patient, uncontrolled study unable to prove the transplanted mitochondria caused the changes.
Mount Sinai's team said the temporary signals point to testing repeated injections next and is working with the FDA on a protocol for serial treatments.