Several United States researchers have recently developed a new drug. One that is applied directly to the eye through an eye dropper and is able to shrink down and dissolve away cataracts! How insane is that?
Cataracts cause the eye to become cloudy and over time can cause blindness. This means that this new drug could potentially cure blindness in some people.
The effects of this drug have not yet been tested on people but if all goes well this could become an amazing alternative to the frequently overly priced surgical option. This could help people across the world.
An approximated 32.4 million people around the world are blind, and 90% reside in developing nations. Over half of these were caused by cataracts, which implies that having an eye drop as an option to surgical treatment would make an unbelievable difference.
“This is a really extensive and engaging paper – the strongest I’ve seen of its kind in a years,” molecular biologist Jonathan King from the Massachusetts Institute of Innovation (MIT) told Armitage. While not associated with this study, King has actually been involved in cataract research study for the past 15 years. “They discovered the phenomena and after that followed with all of the experiments that you should do – that’s as biologically relevant as you can get.” From a study published in Nature.
It is known that most people who are older usually around eighty years old are dealing with cataracts or have already had surgery for the issue. This could put a whole new spin on things. While we do not know what causes cataracts having an effective treatment for them is an amazing feat. Hopefully, this drug will be taken on with human trials in the near future because the sooner we can start using it to help people the better!