I think this is great, but I doubt it will cure all blindness, but maybe most.
For example, blindness due to glaucoma. From what I understand that is caused by damage to the optic nerve. Maybe fixing the optic nerve is part of it(?).
For example, blindness due to glaucoma. From what I understand that is caused by damage to the optic nerve. Maybe fixing the optic nerve is part of it(?).
High dose nicotinamide prevents some types if glaucoma in mice by improving the metabolic resilience of mitochondria and retinal ganglion cells.
In the latter two cases, basically all of that damage is limited to within the nerves within the eye and the optic nerve head whereas more general degeneration of the optic nerve would likely occur across the entire optic nerve up to and potentially through and past the optic chiasma.
This project (THEA) is primarily about pursuing whole functional eye (i.e. the entire eye "ball") transplants and reconnecting/regenerating the optic nerve to a new eye. If this succeeds it would mean that any degeneration in the retina or optic nerve head would be curable. And potentially the techniques pioneered in regenerating the optic nerve would provide a starting point for addressing degeneration further up the optic nerve all the way through the optic chiasma and optic track up into the brain.
So TLDR: If this project is successful it should mean a functional cure for most degenerative eye diseases even including most forms of glaucoma. And potentially it could lead to inroads in curing dementia related vision loss and other cognitive decline related vision loss.