Corneal ulceration in the developing world--a silent epidemic.

Photoreceptor degeneration in inherited retinal dystrophy delayed by basic fibroblast growth factor. vector-mediated in vivo gene transfer into adult murine retina. In vivo transfer of a reporter gene to the retina mediated by an adenoviral vector. virus delivery of an opsin promoter driven reporter gene to the mouse and rabbit retina. Gene transfer into the mouse retina mediated by an adeno-associated viral vector. Photoreceptor cell rescue in retinal degeneration (rd) mice by in vivo gene therapy. JM. Transduction with recombinant adeno-associated virus for gene therapy is limited by leading-strand synthesis. Second-strand synthesis is a rate-limiting step for eYcient transduction by recombinant adeno-associated virus vectors. delivery and expression mediated by an integrin-binding peptide. In vivo gene transfer into the retina mediated by a novel liposome system. Gage FH, et al. In vivo gene delivery and stable transduction of nondividing cells by a lentiviral vector. Anyone who has spent time in Asia or Africa can invariably recall a vivid image of a blind beggar, sometimes an elderly person but frequently a child with opaque corneas, haunting the bazaars and marketplaces of cities and villages. The spectre is so common that it almost passes unnoticed, but these individuals who are bilaterally blind represent only a small fraction of the millions who suVer monocular blindness as a result of corneal trauma and subsequent microbial keratitis. With the global figure of blindness rapidly approaching 40 million, attention naturally is focused on cataract, which is responsible for 50% or more of all visual disability, and trachoma which is still an enormous public health problem aVecting 500 million people worldwide and responsible for 25% of all bilaterally blind individuals. 1 Xerophthalmia, onchocerciasis, and glaucoma account for several millions more of the 85% of the world's blind individuals who live in developing countries in Asia and Africa. 2 While corneal blindness in the developing world has traditionally been attributed to trachoma, xerophthalmia, measles, neonatal ophthalmia, and leprosy, Thylefors 3 contends that the importance of superficial corneal trauma in agricultural work, which frequently leads to rapidly progressing corneal ulceration and visual loss, has been overlooked as a worldwide cause of monocular blindness. He estimates that up to 5% of all blinding conditions are directly related to ocular trauma and subsequent infection. Population based studies in several countries tend to support this assumption. In the Nepal blindness survey corneal trauma and ulceration were found to be the second leading cause …