Gustavo Aguirre and Elena Vecino

Joint research work between the Experimental Ophthalmic Biology Group (GOBE) from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and the University of Pennsylvania (USA) into pigmentary retinosis and other eye diseases started five years ago, and has been the recipient of the First International Prize of the ONCE Foundation and the First Prize of the Foundation for the Fight against Blindness FUNDALUCE.

The teams, led by the Professor in Cell Biology and Histology Elena Vecino, from GOBE, and by Gustavo Aguirre, Professor in Medical Genetics and Ophthalmology in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in the American university, will have their work further recognised with the publication of two new joint studies in the coming months.

The team led by Dr. Aguirre has contributed decisively to the knowledge of pigmentary retinosis, an eye disease of genetic origin which has been largely unknown for a long time and which, with its early onset, is one of the main causes of blindness all the world over. Their studies into the development of gene therapies with adeno-associated virus and the development of treatments using encapsulated cells that release trophic factors (CNTF) onto the retina in animal models have made it possible to partially recover vision in animals, and obtained American FDA go-ahead for clinical trials in humans.

The first clinical trials at world level in gene therapy for the treatment of pigmentary retinosis are currently underway in the United States and the United Kingdom.

As part of this collaboration with Pennsylvania, Dr. Aguirre visited the UPV/EHU in October, at the request of the Experimental Ophthalmic Biology Group, and among other activities, gave a plenary conference in the BioForo conferences cycle entitled ‘Gene Therapy in the Treatment of Pigmentary Retinosis’, in which he explained the key points in this new ophthalmological therapy, which has been published in the scientific journal Nature.

As well as the study into changes in the retina after gene therapy in pigmentary retinosis, in which Dr. Aguirre has collaborated, the Experimental Ophthalmic Biology Group from the UPV/EHU works in two other areas; the study of neuroprotection and cell survival in eye diseases such as glaucoma, in which it has been the first European group to be financed by the American Glaucoma Society; and the study of the molecular structure of tears in other ocular pathologies, which may lead to the identification of molecular markers for these illnesses.