DALLAS, March 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanoscope Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company committed to developing and commercializing novel, disease-agnostic therapies for patients with photoreceptor loss and vision impairment due to retinal degeneration, today announced the publication of its latest peer-reviewed observational study in a Springer Nature journal, Documenta Ophthalmologica, advancing the field's understanding of how to measure meaningful vision improvements in patients with severe vision loss in the real world.
The study underscores a critical need for testing in patients suffering from loss of vision due to loss of rod and cone functions, highlighting tools that accurately capture functional improvements and patient experience, and can be used in standard retina workflows.
"While best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) has long been the gold standard in ophthalmology, it can be supplemented with new ways to assess how patients with severe vision loss navigate their daily lives," said Samarendra Mohanty, Ph.D., the senior author and Chief Scientific Officer at Nanoscope Therapeutics, "I'm proud that our peer-reviewed findings can help clinicians and treating physicians feel confident in using these tests to assess their patients' functional vision."
The publication highlights findings from a prospective, observational study in 35 subjects, 25 with severe vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and 10 with normal vision. This study provides supportive evidence for the reliability and validity of the Multi-luminance Shape Discrimination Test (MLSDT) as a performance-based assessment of visual ability in individuals with severe visual impairment. In addition to assessing BCVA in the primary endpoint, the RESTORE Ph2b/3 clinical trial of Nanoscope's lead therapy, MCO-010, assessed patients' functional vision using MLSDT in a secondary endpoint. At Week 52, the majority of MCO-010-treated patients improved by 2 or more luminance levels in MLSDT, a clinically meaningful magnitude. MCO-010 is the first therapy to demonstrate clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvements in vision in patients with RP having severe vision loss in a randomized, sham-controlled, registrational trial.
Samuel Barone, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Nanoscope Therapeutics added, "While Nanoscope continues to lead through its development of ground-breaking optogenetic therapies, this observational study shows our commitment to partnering with the retina community on how therapeutic success is measured."
The study findings are available online at Springer Nature here.
About the MCO Platform
MCO is a one-time, in-office, intravitreal disease-agnostic therapy platform designed to restore vision in patients with photoreceptor degeneration, including Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), Stargardt disease (SD), and geographic atrophy (GA). By activating highly dense bipolar retinal cells to become light sensitive, MCO utilizes the remaining visual circuitry following photoreceptor death. MCO treatment does not require genetic testing, invasive surgery, or repeat dosing, enabling broad patient applicability within existing retina office workflows.
About Nanoscope Therapeutics
Nanoscope Therapeutics is developing a disease-agnostic, vision-restoring optogenetic therapy for millions of patients blinded by retinal degenerative diseases. Following positive results from the RESTORE Phase 2b/3 multicenter, randomized, double-masked, sham-controlled clinical trial for retinitis pigmentosa (RP) (NCT04945772), a rolling BLA submission to the FDA is ongoing. If approved, MCO-010 has the potential to be the standard of care for RP patients, administered as a one-time, in-office injection without the need for genetic testing. The company has also shown promising results in the STARLIGHT Phase 2 clinical trial of MCO-010 in Stargardt disease (SD) (NCT05417126) and plans to initiate a Phase 3 registrational trial in 2026. MCO-010 has received FDA Fast Track and Orphan Drug designations for both RP and SD, along with RMAT designation for SD, and EMA Orphan designations to cover non-syndromic and syndromic rod- and cone-dominant dystrophies, as well as macular dystrophies. MCO-010 has also received Sakigake (Pioneer) and Orphan Drug designations in Japan from MHLW. A Phase 2 program for MCO in geographic atrophy (GA) is also expected to start in 2026. Other IND-ready programs include Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA).
Contact:
Nanoscope Therapeutics, Inc
(817) 857-1186
PR@nanostherapeutics.com
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