An Eye Drop Which Can Dissolve and Eliminate Cataracts Has Been Developed!

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan and another from the Washington University in St. Louis have identified a chemical which could be possibly used in eye drops. This chemical can reverse cataracts, which is the main cause of blindness.

Cataracts is considered a prime concern when it comes to eye diseases and it is occurs when the eyes’ lenses no longer have their transparency. Cataracts affects over 20 million people throughout the whole world.

Surgery can remove cataracts successfully, but it is very expensive and the majority of people from the developing countries who suffer from severe cataracts are not treated.

The chemical compound which was reported on 5 November is the first which can be dissolved enough to form the basis of a medication for cataracts which comes in the form of eye-drops.

The effects have not been tested in people, but the researchers want to duplicate the findings with the help of medical trials and offer people another option.

Cataracts can lead to total blindness if left untreated. In case of cataracts, the lenses of the eyes become gradually cloudy. The lens in the eyes are made up of crystalline proteins, and when their structure weakens, the disorganized or harmed proteins clump, thus forming a brown or milky blue layer.

Cataracts does not spread from eye to eye, but is can occur individually in both eyes.

What causes cataract is not entirely known, but scientists think that age is the principal cause. Nearly all Americans over the age of 80 have cataract, or have had surgery to remove it.

The surgery is unpleasant, yet very safe and simple. However, as previously mentioned, it is quite costly.

There are statistics which imply that 32.4 million people throughout the world are blind today, and 90% of those people live in developing countries. More than half of them were caused by cataracts, so having an eye drop will definitely make a difference.

The eye drops are based in lanosterol, a naturally-occurring steroid. The researchers came to the idea to test lanosterol when two children in China, whose parents didn’t have cataract, have developed a genetic form of it.

The researchers discovered that these children had an anomaly which halted the lanosterol production. Their parents didn’t have this anomaly.

Based on these findings, the scientists assumed that the key to solving cataract is lanosterol. Then, they tested the eye drops which were based on lanosterol, and indeed there was a reduction in the size of cataract.

The eye drops were tested in three different experiments. First, they tested the drops on human lens in laboratory. Then, they tested them on rabbits, and finally they tested the drops on pets with cataracts. In all of the three tests, there was a reduction in cataracts. The findings were published in Nature.

According to Jonathan King, who is a molecular biologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Innovation (MIT), this paper is engaging and extensive and the strongest he had seen in years.

The scientists are yet to discover the way in which these drops based on lanosterol are generating the reaction from the proteins, and to go one step further and start human trials.

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