Verona is leader in the Italian medical research, for what concern the tigroid retina, a genetic disease that, in Italy causes progressive vision loss in more than 20 thousand people in adulthood.
The primacy concerns the significant progress of the study that started in 2010, which led the ophthalmology units of the Sacro Cuore-Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar (Vr), directed by Grazia Pertile, to develop an artificial retina.
The device is fully functional and, as stated by Maurizio Mete, a specialist in retina diseases at the Negrar hospital, "only a month after the sub retinal installation, the device shows to accomplish the same visual acuity of an healthy eye".
It is supposed that the device, that now is tested on pigs at the veterinary physiology department of the University of Bologna, will be implanted in a man already in 2017, as said Mete during the meeting «Retina Italia Onlus chiama Telethon», that had place March 20 in the Palazzo of Gran Guardia palace, for the initiative of this Italian association, active in the fight against hereditary retinal dystrophies.
In comparison with the other kind of devices, this one is biocompatible, and doesn’t cause rejection. Furthermore it also works without power supply.
Telethon has allocated about 1 million of euros to this project, but the Foundation has shown to be sensitive to other research activities dedicated to genetic eye diseases, by funding, only in Italy, a total of 93 scientific studies, 14 in Veneto, of whom 3 in Verona.
Generally Telethon allocated about 3.2 million of euro, supporting the city of Verona in 57 research projects on rare genetic diseases, as stated by Alessia Daturi, direct line with the patients for the Foundation.
Hopes for the treatment of retinal dystrophy also come from studies of the University of Modena, for the development of neuroprotective therapies, and from Tigem of Naples, engaged in the gene therapy approach.
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