New Aussie trial will be an eyeful

AN OVER-the-counter vitamin will be offered to Australians with glaucoma in a world-first trial that researchers believe will prevent and even reverse blindness.

The trial comes on the back of a recent US breakthrough study, which found that high doses of vitamin B3 given to glaucoma-prone mice could safely ward off the disease and even reverse age-related damage to the optic nerve.

The Centre for Eye Research Australia is now leading the first-in-human trial aiming to boost treatment options for the disease that affects 60 million people worldwide.

Glaucoma causes ganglion cells at the back of the eye, which send messages from the eye to the brain, to die.

CERA research fellow and optometrist Dr Flora Hui, who is conducting the trial, said her institute had shown that as people age, a specific part of mitochondria – the “batteries” of these ganglion cells – become less effective at producing the energy.