Experimental eye drops help blind mice see again
Scientists have created light-activated drugs that helped blind mice perceive light again and restored visually guided behavior without gene therapy, implants, or specialized lighting. Even more intriguingly, two of the most promising compounds worked when administered as eye drops, pointing toward a potentially simple new approach to restoring vision.
Blind mice have shown signs of sight restored by experimental eye drops in an experimental study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). Retinal degeneration, a common cause of blindness, affects 200 million people worldwide. The retina's photoreceptor cells, responsible for detecting light, deteriorate in these conditions.
However, the remaining retinal circuitry can sometimes remain functional. Scientists have developed light-responsive drugs that could potentially restore visual functions in such patients. These drugs act as photoswitches, altering the chemical structure of a drug using light to control its activity. In this study, the researchers created a family of compounds known as prosthe6, which target ON-bipolar neurons and have shown promise in restoring visual functions in zebrafish and mice models of blindness.
Blind mice treated with prosthe6 spontaneously preferred darker environments, indicating they could detect light and use visual information to guide their actions. This treatment does not cure blindness but restores some visual functions using a simple and potentially patient-friendly approach.
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- Experimental eye drops help blind mice see again sciencedaily.com
