'I See,' Said the Blind Dog

May 2, 2001
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Or, to quote Eddie Murphy in Trading Places: "I can see!! I can see!! I have legs!!"

In Irvine, California, hundreds of dogs and their accompanying humans celebrated the stunning breakthrough at the annual People and Paws Walk, organized by the Foundation Fighting Blindness, and all over the world, scientists, doctors, dogs and humans alike should take notice.

Last Friday, a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University and the University of Florida published an item in the journal Nature Genetics describing how vision can be restored in blind subjects.

In their study, researchers injected a recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) into the retinae of three visually-impaired puppies.  These puppies were Swedish Briards, a breed commonly afflicted with a genetic condition that causes blindness at or near birth.

Three Swedish Briards (not those used in the experiment) are pictured above.  Briards were used in World War I to carry ammunition to the front lines. Photo: Svenska Brukshundklubben

Within 90 days, the blind dogs' eye waveforms began to resemble those of sighted dogs.

After four months, the dogs' behavior indicated qualitatively that the dogs were able to see.  They avoided collision with objects in the room, in contrast to an untreated dog who I suppose continued to smack into things.

Now, six months later, testing shows that sight has been restored and retained in two of the three dogs, who are healthy and happy.  The third dog was euthanized in order to obtain necessary data, reports the Philadelphia Enquirer.

The researchers, Gregory M. Acland, Gustavo D. Aguirre, Jharna Ray, Qi Zhang, Tomas S. Aleman, Artur V. Cideciyan, Susan E. Pearce-Kelling, Vibha Anand, Yong Zeng, Albert M. Maguire, Samuel G. Jacobson, William W. Hauswirth and Jean Bennett have been working on this study for a long time.  

Said Dr. Jean Bennett, "We have worked hard for many, many years trying to develop a treatment for retinal degeneration, and this is the biggest leap forward yet."

Puppy-dog eyes sure look funny from the backside.
This is a retinal fundus photograph of a Briard dog with the inherited eye disease.
Photographer: Dr. G. Aguirre/Cornell University

Known as Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), the visual impairment is, in dogs, the direct result of over-breeding.  Unconscientious breeders tend to propagate these mutations in their purebreds.  As Dr. Acland told The Scoop, "Often dog breeders are the ones who bring the defects to our attention."

The disease is rare in humans (affecting several thousand people in the United States), but the significance of this scientific breakthrough inspires many other applications.  Certainly, both canines and humans stand to benefit from this knowledge.

Drs. Acland & Aguirre examine Riley, a Portugese Water Dog. Riley didn't participate in the study, because, unlike the others, he didn't inherit the blinding disease.
© Cornell Veterinary Image Lab

Editor's note: Of course, this article brings to our attention the heated topic of animal testing and experimentation.  As we had indicated in last week's article, "Human DNA Cures Dog's Cancer", this is the second in a series of animal testing bits.  We hope you're taking notes; at the end of the week we'll take a look at the big picture.

So far, we've given you two examples of how accredited institutions perform animal testing.  Dr. Bennett told The Scoop last week, "I am particularly sensitive to this as I, myself, am an animal/dog lover and have a household full of adopted pets. I would never get involved in a study which I thought abused animals."

Next up, we'll see if we can get a similar quote from Huntingdon Life Sciences...

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