Three people from Lausanne, Switzerland, including Carl Herbort who has been very supportive of BUS, have looked at the retinas of 28 Birdshot eyes and retrospectively evaluated the OCT findings of these eyes, to see what changes there are in the retina over a long period of time.

They looked at the OCT results in early Birdshot (less than 1 year), intermediate (1 to 6 years) and late (more than 6 years).

What they found was that in early Birdshot, the retinal thickness was significantly elevated (i.e. it was thicker than usual) because of the inflammation and vasculitis.  The thickness begins to diminish in intermediate Birdshot and by late Birdshot, the retina is significantly thinned.  They also observed that 92% of these eyes had developed an epiretinal membrane by late Birdshot.  An epiretinal membrane is a thin sheet of fibrous tissue that grows over the retina.  For those of us with Birdshot, an epiretinal membrane may develop because the vitreous (the jelly inside our eyes) pulls away from the retina due to the inflammation. Epiretinal membranes can cause visual problems, although most of us with an epiretinal membrane do not even notice any issues.

The interesting thing about this research is that if some-one has had a delayed diagnosis, their OCT results may help determine approximately how long they have had Birdshot for.

For more information on this piece of research, follow the link:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22909176

We have posted before about helminthic therapy – worms that can modulate the immune system and prevent it from attacking the body’s own tissues and organs.

Well, the time has come for mid stage trials on this therapy.  Currently, 220 people with Crohn’s Disease in the US are being enrolled on a mid stage trial and in Europe a further mid stage trial is being started.

The drug is called Trichuris Suis Ova (TSO) and consists of thousands of microscopic parasite eggs, suspended in saline solution – the drug is swallowed just like a tablet.  The parasites are killed off in our stomachs, but the hypothesis is that, before they die off, they are able to modulate our immune systems.

If these trials go well, we are not too far off from having this new drug available on the market.

Read the full story at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/30/us-usa-health-parasites-idUSBRE87T14720120830

At long last it looks as though the world has finally woken up to the fact that autoimmune diseases are the modern day health problem.  There are over 100 different autoimmune diseases, many of them rare, and more and more people are being diagnosed with autoimmune diseases and no-one knows why.

A researcher in Australia, Chris Goodhew has received a grant from GlaxoSmithKline and he will look at why the immune system is attacking in the first place.  He has a vested interest as his mother has an autoimmune disease, lupus!

It is really good to see a major pharma investing in auto-immune diseases.

Read the full article at

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/80000-boost-for-autoimmune-researcher-20120911-25qs6.html

Recently New Zealand member Matt drew BUS’s attention to  research into the use of micro needle technology for the delivery of therapeutic drugs to the back of the eye . This link that takes you to the article found in “Gizmag”.

This procedure has yet to be trialled on humans, but if it works as it does in the animal study, it  could well open the door for better treatment via eye injections.   It should provide a less invasive and more targeted way of getting injections into the eye, and will open the way for slow-release drug design. Of particular note,  the injected molecules did not reach the lens or front part of the eye in significant amounts decreasing the chances of side effects such as cataracts which commonly occur with this type of treatment.

Details of the study were published in the July 2012 issue of the “Journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science” where you can read the abstract for free, but you need to pay or be a member to access the full paper.

Authors:  Samirkumar R. Patel¹,Damian E. Berezovsky²,Bernard E. McCarey²,Vladimir Zarnitsyn¹, Henry F. Edelhauser² and Mark R. Prausnitz¹  from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia (1) ; and Emory Eye Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia (2).