Drug and gene therapy of hereditary retinal disease in dog and cat models

There are many different spontaneously occurring dog and cat retinal dystrophies that are the equivalent of human conditions such as Leber congenital amaurosis, retinitis pigmentosa and Best disease. These large animal species have eyes that are similar in size and dimensions and photoreceptor distribution to the human eyes. Some of these models have already proven valuable in preclinical proof-of-concept trials for gene and drug therapies.