Cataracts Cure: Doctors Discover Chemical That Can Reverse Cataracts

As reported on Science Daily, a new chemical that can help in clearing cataracts has been discovered. The chemical compound is soluble enough to be used in eye drops for treating the "eye priority disease" as identified by the World Health Organization.

Cataracts is a chronic eye condition brought about by the misfolding and mass clustering of crystallins, the proteins found in the eye. As a result, the lens loses its transparency, and over time, it could make the affected person blind. This disease has been tagged as the no. 1 cause of blindness today.

In an effort to stop cataracts, a group of scientists and researchers from University Of California-San Francisco (UCSF), the University of Michigan (U-M), and Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), worked together to find a way to keep the proteins from clustering and break the amyloids, the clustered proteins, if present already.

According to the press release of UCSF, the team began testing about 2,400 chemicals that have potentials, then they focused on 12 elements under the chemical called "sterol."

Out of the 12, they found "lanosterol" and put more attention to it. When the said compound was used in testing, it showed to have cleared cataracts.

Aside from lanosterol, 28 more chemicals were tested to have positive outcomes on cataracts treatment, so "compound 29" was born. In a nutshell, the researchers said that compound 29 can be added to the formula to make eye drops and help treat cataracts in humans, and even pets like dogs.

Furthermore, Jason Gestwicki, an associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at UCSF and a member of UCSF's Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, whose research is centered on dementia and similar conditions, suggested that compound 29 may still have other potentials apart from treating cataracts.

"If you look at an electron micrograph at the protein aggregates that cause cataracts, you'd be hard-pressed to tell them apart from those that cause Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or Huntington's diseases," he stated.

He further said, "By studying cataracts we've been able to benchmark our technologies and to show by proof-of-concept that these technologies could also be used in nervous system diseases, to lead us all the way from the first idea to a drug we can test in clinical trials."

The findings of the research was published in Science on November 6.