Urine Test Reveals Retinitis Pigmentosa

"You might not think to look to a urine test to diagnose an eye disease," says Science Daily. "But a new Duke University study says it can link what is in a patient's urine to gene mutations that cause retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, an inherited, degenerative disease that results in severe vision impairment and often blindness. The findings appear online in the Journal of Lipid Research." Read more.

How Retinitis Pigmentosa Kills Cone Photoreceptor Cells

"Research conducted at the Angiogenesis Laboratory at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, has for the first time, identified the mode of death of cone photoreceptor cells in an animal model of retinitis pigmentosa (RP)," according to a Medical News Today post. "This groundbreaking study, led by Demetrios G. Vavvas, M.D., Ph.D., and including Joan W. Miller, M.D., Mass. Eye and Ear/Mass General Hospital Chief of Ophthalmology and Chair of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, has further identified the receptor interacting protein (RIP) kinase pathway as a potential target for developing treatment for vision loss in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition." Read more.