Presentation
The CIC was established in December 2004 upon an agreement between the Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). In 2005, the center obtained the title of “National Reference Center for Inherited Retinal Dystrophies”. Initially the CIC was mainly focused on inherited retinal pathologies, age-related macular degenerations, diabetic retinopathy, retinal vascular diseases, and toxicology.
Today, the CIC team of specialists is able to conceive and conduct clinical research studies (clinical trials of new medicines and devices, physiological and pathophysiological studies, etc.) and explore all eye conditions with the support of complementary platforms specialized in: ocular surface diseases and glaucoma; pediatric ophthalmology; cornea and refractive surgery; visual handicap evaluation and rehabilitation.
Patient Cohorts
■ More than 7,000 patients with stationary or progressive retinal dystrophies. Studies on this cohort focus on phenotypic and genotypic characterization and correlations, the natural history of patients with Stargardt disease and Usher syndrome (in collaboration with the Foundation Fighting Blindness), and Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (in collaboration with the French Muscular Dystrophy Association)
■ Over 1500 patients with age-related macular degeneration for studies concerning genetic variants, the pathogenetic role of inflammation, and structural anomalies in the atrophic form of the disease
Know-how
The CIC provides the infrastructure, latest high-tech equipment, and highly specialized personnel for institutional and industrial partners and offers regulatory expertise to follow good clinical practices, European Directives, and bioethical law. In all stages from the preparation phase through the conclusion of the study, the center proposes different types of support which include:
■ Expert consultation on study design and methodology
■ Technical assistance for regulatory procedures
■ Recruitment of healthy volunteers or patients
■ Technical and logistical support for protocol execution
■ Participation of a qualified medical team
■ Data management and analysis
■ Optical engineering
The following video will give you an insight into the current and future imaging tools available now or very soon at the Clinical Investigation Center of the Quinze-Vingts hospital.
Clinical Trials
At the CIC, patient selection for clinical trials is based on innovative non-invasive high-resolution imaging techniques such as adaptive optics. More than 60 clinical trials are currently ongoing to test a wide range of therapeutic strategies for age-related macular degeneration, inherited eye diseases, diabetic retinopathy, retinal venous occlusions, glaucoma, dry eye syndrome, biomarkers and high-resolution imaging of ocular surface pathologies, and toxicology of anti-glaucoma drugs.
A number of current and future clinical trials are focused on innovative gene therapy and cell therapy studies:
Phase I/IIa study of SAR422459 in patients with Stargardt macular degeneration
■ Safety evaluation of gene therapy in patients with Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON)
■ Study of long-term safety, tolerability, and biological activity of UshStat® in patients with Usher syndrome type 1B
■ Phase I dose escalation safety study of subretinally injected RPE cells derived from hESC in retinitis pigmentosa
■ Phase I dose escalation safety study of subretinally injected AAV-RdCVF administered to patients with retinitis pigmentosa
■ Safety and feasibility study of gene therapy products for the treatment of retinal forms of blindness - optogenetic reactivation of cone photoreceptors with highly sensitive halorhodopsin based on AAV9 vector
They are a team of ophthalmologists and physicists interested in high resolution imaging of the human eye, observing living cells in living eyes. They are located at the Quinze-Vingts Hospital. They benefit from the medical environment of one of the largest eye hospitals in Europe, and from the exceptional scientific environment of the Institut de la Vision. Their aim is to better understand eye diseases by combining conventional and cutting-edge approaches.
They design and build many of the clinical instruments they use, and the close interaction with ophthalmologists ensures that their research is medically pertinent. They conduct many research programs on retinal diseases, with patients from Quinze-Vingts and from other collaborating hospitals. They have a specialized histology unit for human ocular tissue and they use also cell cultures to analyze light-tissue interactions. Their findings have led to the adoption of novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools for treating disease affecting the eye.
To have further details about this team, please follow this link.
Networking
- The CIC has integrated a wide network of cooperation partners on a local and European scale and is involved in numerous collaborative clinical studies within the French Inter-hospital Federation of Retinal Pathologies, and the European Vision Institute Clinical Research Network (EVICR.net).
- The center regularly collaborates with the Office National de Recherche Aeronautiques (ONERA) and the Institut Supérieur d’Electronique de Paris (ISEP) for the development of retinal imaging devices.
- The CIC team is conducting projects concerning vision rehabilitation, genetics, and disease modeling with iPS cells. Owing to their efforts and achievements in translational research, the center is now recognized as a Foundation Fighting Blindness Center.
