By Aliyah Siddiqui
Correspondent
Good News Lions is the Nation & World section’s bi-weekly news segment, highlighting positive news in the country and around the world. The theme of this article is lending a hand.
Gene therapy for kids born blind
A gene therapy treatment for children with a genetic form of blindness was recently designed. Although the treatment is still in its early stages, this therapy marks the continuous efforts made by scientists to treat blindness.
According to the National Institute for Health and Care Research, four children who were born with a rare genetic mutation in the AIPL1 gene, which causes retinal cells to deteriorate quickly after birth, were treated. Although the children can distinguish between light and dark, they are considered legally blind.
The treatment, which was developed by scientists at the University College London, works by injecting healthy copies of the gene into the retina, where they can replace the defective gene. According to the BBC, gene therapy has been used previously to treat patients with another form of retinal dystrophy.
In an interview with the BBC, Brendan, the father of one of the children who received the treatment, described how his son’s sight has improved since the surgery.
“Pre-surgery, we could have held up an object near his face and he wouldn't be able to track it at all,” Brendan said. “Now he's picking things off the floor, he's hauling out toys, doing things driven by his sight that he wouldn't have done before.”
Eye specialists hope that similar treatment can continue to develop and help children with other forms of blindness.
“We have, for the first time, an effective treatment for the most severe form of childhood blindness, and a potential paradigm shift to treatment at the earliest stages of the disease,” said Michel Michaelides, an ophthalmology professor at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology to the NIHR. “The outcomes for these children are hugely impressive and show the power of gene therapy to change lives.”
Mice performing first aid
Helping others in times of crisis may be a natural response. A recent study from the University of Southern California found that mice attempt “first aid” on mice that have been knocked out through anesthetics.
The experiment worked by putting an anesthetized mouse back into its cage and observing how its cage mate responded. The scientists found that the cage mate would start to sniff and groom the knocked-out mouse, but as its partner remained unresponsive, the mate would start to bite the unconscious mouse’s mouth and pull out its tongue.
According to NPR, the researchers posit that this behavior is instinctual as the mice have never previously encountered unconscious mice. They also rarely perform this type of behavior with asleep or active mice, and were also more likely to help familiar mice rather than strangers.
“That familiarity bias tells you that the animal's not responding in a reflexive manner to the stimuli that they're seeing,” said James Burkett, a neuroscientist at the University of Toledo who wasn't involved in the study, in an interview with NPR. “They're actually taking into account aspects of the situation and the identity of the animal when they're forming their response.”
The researchers also found that the behavior from the awake mice, such as tongue pulling, helped the anesthetized mice recover as it expanded their airways. They also found that oxytocin levels increased in these helper mice, which is indicative that the mice are actively engaging, which scientists believe helped produce the “first-aid-like” response.
According to The Times, other mammals have been found to engage in life-saving behavior. For example, chimpanzees have been observed helping others that were wounded, and dolphins have been seen pushing pod members to the surface to help them breathe.
Maine nonprofit cancels medical debt
Mainers for Working Families, a nonprofit advocacy group, partnered with Undue Medical Debt, another nonprofit that buys debt, to relieve the medical debt for 1,508 low-income Maine residents. Together, the groups relieved $1.85 million of debt, according to Common Dreams.
“This is just a drop in the bucket,” said Evan LeBrun, MFWF's executive director. “Now, it's up to our lawmakers to make healthcare affordable for everyone in our state and to eliminate medical debt.”
According to Common Dreams, the recipients were people who live four times below the federal poverty line or individuals whose medical debt totals were over 5% of their annual income. Across the nation, almost 100 million people have unpaid medical debt, which can accrue quickly if patients can’t pay their medical bills.
Undue Medical Debt, which was established in 2014 after the Occupy Wall Street movement, has since relieved over $14 billion in medical debt for over 9.85 million people in the United States.
