One study that was done by Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) in rat model shows that a recessive mutation in a receptor tyrosine kinase gene, mertk results in a premature stop codon and impaired phagocytosis function by RPE cells. This mutation causes the accumulation of outer segment debris in the subretinal space, which causes photoreceptor cell death. The model organism with this disease received a subretinal injection of AAV serotype 2 carrying a mouse Mertk cDNA under the control of either the CMV or RPE65 promoters. This treatment was found to prolong photoreceptor cell survival for several months and also the number of photoreceptor was 2.5 fold higher in AAV-Mertk- treated eyes compared with controls 9 weeks after injection, also they found decreased amount of debris in the subretinal space.
The protein RPE65 is used in the retinoid cycle where the all-trans-retinol within the rod outer segment is isomerized to its 11-cis form and oxidized to 11-cis retinal before it goes back to the photoreceptor and joins with opsin molecule to form functional rhodopsin. In animal knockout model (RPE65-/-), gene transfer experiment shows that early intraocular delivery of human RPE65 vector on embryonic day 14 shows efficient transduction of retinal pigment epithelium in the RPE65-/-  knockout mice and rescues visual functions. This shows successful gene therapy can be attributed to early intraocular deliver to the diseased animal.