LINCOLN, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that, as reported in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (April, 2011, Vol. 52), the Company's product candidate NT-501 demonstrated statistically significant cone photoreceptor preservation in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP)—a slowly developing condition that causes the progressive bilateral degeneration of photoreceptor cells in the retina, eventually resulting in blindness. NT-501 is an intraocular implant that consists of human cells genetically modified to secrete ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF)—a nerve growth factor capable of rescuing and protecting dying photoreceptors. The study utilized Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO), a breakthrough diagnostic technology, to image and measure the rate of the progressive degeneration of cone photoreceptors. AOSLO overcomes a major obstacle in the study of retinal degeneration—the non-invasive measurement of cone photoreceptor cells and their rate of degeneration in the eyes of living subjects.
