Rinse them away?
Surgery is the only option for fixing cataracts, although the hope is that eye drops may one day be able to “melt” the misfolded proteins that create them. It would be a boon for those who are fearful of or can’t afford surgery – and dogs and cats with life-limiting cataracts.
In 2015, scientists at the University of California in San Francisco assessed hundreds of substances with the idea that one might interact with misfolded proteins and promote their native, functional shape. The company involved, ViewPoint Therapeutics, says, “Our method leverages the idea that heat can be used to measure the stability of crystallin proteins. With this new method, we identified VP1-001, a molecule that effectively stabilises the soluble native form of alpha-crystallin to reduce misfolding and aggregation and consequently prevent and counteract lens disorders such as cataracts and presbyopia.”
Jason Gestwicki, a professor at
UCSF’s department of pharmaceutical chemistry, told the Listener that research is still going on and results are some way off. “We are working hard on the safety studies required prior to the initiation of clinical trials. We incorporated ViewPoint Therapeutics to accelerate that process. The timeline of the clinical development is notoriously difficult to predict, but it will likely be another two or three years.”
It’s not clear if the drops, assuming they’re successful, would be preventative – that is, you could use them to avoid developing cataracts – or whether they could clear your vision once cataracts had developed. If it’s the former, it’s hard to imagine people using them for decades to avoid a 30-minute op.