New Delhi (PTI): A possible cure to hereditary degenerative blindness through a new gene therapy might be in the offing as suggested by a recent study undertaken by a group of US researchers.

Albert Maguire and his colleagues at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have found that gene therapy treatment helps cure Leber's congenital amaurosis and possibly other forms of retinal degeneration.

"Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA) is a rare genetic eye disorder which occurs during infancy and causes severe vision loss and mostly affects night vision," the study published in Current Science magazine said.

LCA is one of the most severe forms of congenital blindness and no cure has been found for it yet. It causes retinal degeneration resulting in vision impairment or loss of vision, with little or no change in the appearance of the eye.

It is a progressive disease in which the infant slowly loses the vision power and finally total blindness may occur by the time the individual is around 3040 years of age, it said.

The therapy helps treat patients lacking the protein needed by retina for sensing light and sending images into the brain by artificially injecting the same into their retina.

According to Maguire, this is the first gene therapy trial for a nonlethal paediatric condition.