Precision Eye Therapy for Dogs Ready for Human Clinical Development

A successful gene therapy trialed at Michigan State University in dogs with an inherited eye disease is ready to be developed for clinical use in human patients with retinitis pigmentosa, according to a university news release.

Simon Petersen-Jones, professor and Donald R. Myers and William E. Dunlap Endowed Chair in Canine Health in MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and his collaborators have published research about a gene therapy for CNGB1-retinitis pigmentosa in the journal Molecular Therapy.

“There is currently an unmet need for treatment to save the vision of patients with CNGB1-retinitis pigmentosa,” Prof. Petersen-Jones said. “This promising therapy that works so well in dogs is now sufficiently developed that the next step is to take it forward for a clinical trial in human patients.”

Humans and dogs share a gene—cyclic nucleotide-gated channel beta 1, or CNGB1—that, when mutated, causes eye disease. Dogs develop a form of progressive retinal atrophy, while people develop a form of retinitis pigmentosa. Because the gene therapy works in dogs with progressive retinal atrophy due to CNGB1 gene mutations, and because humans develop retinitis pigmentosa (the human equivalent of progressive retinal atrophy in dogs) due to CNGB1 gene mutations, the therapy is now ready to be developed to help people with CNGB1-retinitis pigmentosa.

Read the full Michigan State news release here.