Eye Drops Could Cure Cataracts And Long-Sightedness

Cataract surgery could soon be a thing of the past. At least that’s what two recent studies, one published in Nature and the other in Science, suggest.

Cataracts are cloudy regions that develop in the lens of the eye. They take years to form, but can be dissolved in a matter of weeks with a substance called lanosterol, a precursor to cholesterol and several related sterols.

The Nature paper showed that an injection followed by eye drops containing lanosterol reversed clouding in the lenses of dogs after treating them for just six weeks. Veterinarians may soon be able to substitute eye drops for the scalpel to treat their canine patients, which is just as well as cataracts are common in some pedigree dogs including, ironically, guide dogs for the blind.

The Science paper reports the discovery of a class of small molecules also derived from cholesterol. These sterols were shown to reverse lens clouding in mice and, remarkably, the effects were seen in just two weeks.

Guide dogs get cataracts too.www.shutterstock.com

Surgeon shortage

Cataracts and the clouding that happens as a result of protein aggregation was considered a point of no return. Until these two new studies came along, no one even thought that restoring the transparency of the lens was an alternative. These papers change that perspective and open a completely new therapeutic strategy to treat cataracts in the future.

Cataracts occur as a result of protein clumping together on the eye’s lens, preventing light from reaching the retina. Once the cataract is formed, there is one option: surgery. Cataract surgery involves removing the natural lens through tiny incisions and replacing it with a plastic “intraocular” lens.

Cataract surgery is one of the most commonly performed procedures and it has a high success rate. The problem is that there simply aren’t enough ophthalmic surgeons to perform all of the procedures that are needed.

Read More Here