[Theochem]

В газете "Times" написали о разработках в плане создания глазных капель, предотвращающих развитие катаракты. Интересно то, что с учетом старения населения количество требуемых катарактальных вмешательств может увеличиться вдвое через 20 лет.
Оригинал под спойлером:

Eyedrop treatment offers thousands hope of cataract cure without surgery

Eyedrop treatment offers thousands hope of cataract cure without surgery

Oliver Moody Science Correspondent

Eyedrops that may cure cataracts have been developed by scientists in a breakthrough that could eliminate the need for surgery. British doctors carry out an estimated 300,000 operations to remove clouded lenses each year,making it the most common surgical procedure in the country.
Although the operations are cheap and take as little as half an hour under local anaesthetic, a drug that can sort out the condition without the need for patients to go under the knife would be a significant advance.
A team of Chinese scientists studied the DNA of two families with a genetic predisposition to cataracts and found that they shared mutations of a gene called LSS, linked to the production of an important structural molecule.
The lens, which refracts light on to the retina at the back of the eye, is made up of millions of slender, fibrous cells containing proteins called crystallins, whose density plays a role in determining the clarity of a person’s vision.
Cataracts form when these proteins become damaged and the cells make opaque clumps that scatter light. Lanosterol, an enzyme produced by the LSS gene, appears to break these structures down in the healthy eye and keep cataracts at bay.
Tested on cloudy lenses taken from rabbits and on live dogs with cataracts, the compound was found to make their eyes significantly clearer and to break up the clusters of proteins on a molecular level. Scientists hope that it will have the same effect on people.
“Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness and millions of patients every year undergo cataract surgery to remove the opacified lenses,” they wrote in Nature. “The surgery, although very successful, is nonetheless associated with complications and morbidities. Therefore, pharmacological treatment to reverse cataracts could have large health and economic impacts.”
In an accompanying editorial J Fielding Hejtmancik of the US National Eye Institute said that the drug showed great promise. “The potential for this finding to be translated into the first practical pharmacological prevention, or even treatment, of human cataracts could not come at a more opportune time,” he wrote.
Because it has to bend light with such precision, the lens is one of the most delicately structured parts of the body, and the crystallin proteins that govern its shape are some of the densest human tissues.
As people age these proteins are not replaced and the fibre cells in the lens lose their alignment, often leading to a natural clouding effect in the eyes of old people. The cells can also be damaged by ultraviolet light from the sun.
Dr Hejtmancik said that a drug for treating or preventing cataracts would be of particular use in the world where surgery was not cheaply available.
“Although surgery to remove cataracts is efficacious and safe, ageing populations around the world are predicted to require a doubling of cataract surgery in the next 20 years,” he wrote.
“The same population demographics suggest that the need for surgery could be reduced by almost half.”

(c) The Times | Thursday July 23 2015

[Chemist]

Сообщение от Theochem

Eyedrops that may cure cataracts have been developed by scientists in a breakthrough that could eliminate the need for surgery.

Интересно, что за капли то и что там по поводу эффективности? Просто в РФ на полках уже и давно есть в продаже капли от катаракты. Не из той же это оперы.

[Theochem]

Газета пишет, что пока всё на стадии тестирования кроликов и собачек. До людей пока дело не дошло. Но шанс якобы есть.

[Chemist]

Хорошо бы такое от глаукомы и ВМД, а уж катаракта подождет.

[Сергей Саныч]

Ни кто это не выпустит на рынок. Еще на стадии разработки, в ходе исследований начнут происходить неведомые дела. Заговоры, иллюминаты, жидомассоны повсюду