New Approach to Treating Eye Disease

"Researchers have revealed a new approach for treating human eye disease that has proved to be successful in preclinical studies. This is according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation," according to a Medical News Today post. "The research team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in California, Mount Sinai Hospital in Canada and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), say their findings could lead to new treatments to prevent blindness. Many types of blindness, including diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration, can be linked to the abnormal growth of blood vessels (neovascularization) in the retina at the back of the eye, the researchers explain. The retina is a thin layer of soft tissue consisting of blood vessels and light-sensing cells." Read more.

Contact Lenses That Zoom

A week ago, we posted a story about the telescopic contact lenses developed at the University of California at San Diego and how it might help individuals with AMD. In the past 48 hours, the news media finally caught it with the development. So in case you missed our original post, just click this link.

FYI: Eye Test for Alzheimer's

Cognoptix, previously known as Neuroptix, has signed an exclusive license for a non-invasive eye-scanning test that could detect Alzheimer's Disease at an early stage. The patent is held by the University of California at San Diego (“UC San Diego”), which developed the test with Cognoptix. The UC San Diego technology is the subject of a scientific paper recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Chemical Society (“Aminonaphthalene 2-Cyanoacrylate [ANCA] Probes Fluorescently Discriminate between Amyloid-β and Prion Plaques in Brain”). Read more.

Eye Exam Now Can Reveal Alzheimer's, Parkinson's,and Creutzfeld-Jacobs

"Sticky plaques of proteins called amyloids mark several different, though related degenerative brain diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Creutzfeld-Jacobs. The symptoms of these disorders overlap and methods to diagnose and monitor them are not very advanced," notes Science Daily. "To solve this problem, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have devised several new fluorescent probes that change color depending on what type of amyloid they encounter. Because amyloids accumulate in the eye as well as the brain, their discovery offers hope that one day neurodegenerative diseases could be differentially diagnosed with simple eye drops or ointment and an eye exam." Read more.