JERUSALEM, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Israeli scientists have developed a gene therapy that may cure people suffering from day blindness, said a report by the Hebrew-language website Haaretz on Wednesday.
The scientists, from the Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center, both in Jerusalem, and from the Volcani Institute in central Israel, managed to cure 30 sheep suffering from day blindness.
The researchers also found that the genetic mutation that causes sheep disease is the same as the cause of the disease for humans.
Day blindness (achromatopsia) disease is caused by a genetic mutation. The patients' vision is normal at night, but during the day, when exposed to light, there is a drastic decrease.
In addition to poor day vision, patients with the disease also suffer from low visual acuity and color blindness.
The incidence of the disease varies according to the population and the region, and like other hereditary diseases it is also affected by genetic background and relatives' marriages. Its prevalence in Israel is one out of 30,000, but in the Jerusalem area it stands at one out of 5,000.
Following the success of the treatment, the Israeli Ministry of Health has approved testing the treatment on humans, which is expected to start at the beginning of 2019 at Hadassah.
