Dr Monés: «Gene therapy will evolve quicker than cell therapy for the treatment of atrophic AMD»

Jordi Monés, the Director of the BMF, trusts in the progress made in gene and cell therapies for the future treatment of atrophic AMD. This pathology lacks a cure at present and it is the subject of a series of studies being conducted by the Foundation. In an interview with the medical newspaper Diario Médico, Dr Monés said that «for the initial phases of AMD», prior to the onset of geographic atrophy, «gene therapy will evolve quicker than cell therapy». In fact, gene therapy has already passed the proof-of-concept stage in Leber congenital amaurosis and is being tested in phase I and II clinical trials for atrophic AMD, choroideremia, Stargardt’s disease and retinitis pigmentosa, among other pathologies. Diario Médico explained the importance of the BMF’s participation in the EYE-RISK project in the definition of risk factors, pathological patterns and new biomarkers for the dry form of AMD. In this respect, the newspaper outlined the new hypothesis on the progression towards geographic atrophy published by the journal Ophthalmology Retina, resulting from a study that forms part of the European project. It also reported on the inclusion of an overview on a new method for classifying patients with atrophic AMD, which goes beyond autofluorescence patterns, in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Photo: Jaume Cosialls | Diario Médico