Canadians develop cure for type of genetic blindness

A team of scientists from the Montreal-based University of McGill believes it has developed a pill that cures Leber congenital amourosis, a genetic form of blindness that usually affects newborns.

In a 17-year study, Dr. Robert Koenekoop, an ophthalmologist, and his team developed a pill that allowed a 42-year old woman named Nathalie Fex, who had been blind for most of her life, to see the world again.

Fex had Leber congenital amourosis, a form of inherited blindness that left her unable to see colors, faces, and letters from an early age.

The condition is a rare eye disease that appears at birth or within the first few months of life, affecting about 1 in 80,000 newborns.

Fex volunteered to test the drug. She said she started seeing after the second dose and was able to read book after the third one.

"This is probably one of the most important discoveries in neuroscience and blindness in the past 15 years," said Koenekoop, the lead author of the study, in a statement on the university's website. "We can now identify the gene responsible for LCA in 75 percent of children. We are getting closer to being able to identify all the genes for this form of child blindness and develop effective treatments."

He said the remedy might also help cure other kinds of blindness, but in order to do that the scope of the research must be expanded.