Cataracts can be treated without surgery

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Cataract is a major eye disease that causes blindness worldwide. Except for some cases caused by genetic factors, cataracts mostly occur in the elderly. Cataract is mainly characterized by gray-white opacity of the lens cortex. The development process can be divided into four stages: initial stage, immature stage, mature stage, and overripe stage.

Specifically, cataracts are degenerative changes in the optical quality of the lens caused by reduced transparency or color changes. There are two proteins, cryAA and cryAB, in the human lens. Their function is to prevent the aggregation of other proteins in the lens due to damage and other reasons, thereby ensuring the transparency of the lens.

However, as people age, the activity of these two proteins gradually weakens and cannot completely prevent the aggregation of other proteins. These proteins, once aggregated into small particles, cause some of the light that would otherwise pass through the lens to be scattered, resulting in reduced vision and even blindness.

Cataracts affect about 24.4 million Americans age 40 or older, according to estimates by the National Eye Institute. In China, the prevalence of cataracts among people aged 50-60 is 6.83%, that of people over 70 years old is 59.95%, and the prevalence of cataracts among people over 80 years old is 83%. In addition, nearly half of the 5 million blind people are caused by cataracts.

However, the current treatment of cataract is in the exploratory stage at home and abroad. For some early cataracts, the disease will slow down after clinical medication; for some intermediate cataract patients, the visual acuity and lens opacity can be improved to a certain extent after medication; but for mature cataracts, the effect of drug therapy is relatively limited.

Anglia Ruskin University researchers led an effort to treat cataracts with an advanced optical test of a compound called an oxysterol, which showed encouraging results. , the future drug treatment of cataracts, or will soon become a reality.

Sterols (sterols) are a class of steroids that widely exist in nature, cyclopentane and polyhydrophenanthrene compounds, also known as steroids. In this trial, the researchers treated the oxysterol compound VP1-001 and showed 61 percent of the lenses had an improvement in the refractive index profile, a key optical parameter required to maintain high focusing power. This means that the protein organization of the lens is restored, resulting in the lens being able to focus better. This is also supported by a reduction in lens opacity in 46% of cases.

It is worth mentioning that this compound has been proposed as an anti-cataract drug, but has never been tested in lens optics, which is the first study of its kind in the world. The findings have now been published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision Science.