Older women could be prone to harmful inflammation from new gene therapy treatments for incurable eye diseases, new research from the University of Bristol has found.
The study, published in Molecular Therapy, showed how age and gender affected inflammation from gene therapy treatments and could cause damage to the eye and lead to vision loss in some patients.
The study showed that older female’s immune cells in mice responded differently and had an increased risk of stress and inflammation, causing damage to the eye. While eye cells in male and female animal models were found to have similar short-term immune responses, the immune cells (microglia and T cells) reacted differently at a molecular and cellular level, according to the study.
Dr Alison Clare, senior research associate from Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences (Ophthalmology) and the study’s lead author, said: ‘Our findings are the first to demonstrate age and sex influences the risk of significant adverse inflammatory reactions in the eye to gene therapies. The research has highlighted the critical need to separate patients for gene therapy treatment based on gender, age and risk.’
