Somatic gene therapy to suppress secondary cataract formation following eye surgery

摘要

Disclosed is a replication-recombinant virus, preferably an adenovirus that lacks E1a, E1b and E4 ORF 6, capable of infecting an eye and comprising a lens epithelial cell specific promoter driving an ORF encoding at least one protein, which when expressed in lens epithelial cells of an eye suppresses, at the level of the germinative epithelium of the lens of the eye, cellular proliferation which is stimulated by eye surgery and which would otherwise result in secondary cataract formation in the eye. Also disclosed is the use of the recombinant virus for the treatment of an eye, undergoing eye (e.g. cataract) surgery, in order to reduce the incidence of cellular proliferation in the eye following the surgery and thereby to prevent the formation of secondary cataracts.