Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, especially in developed countries, and there is currently no known treatment or cure or for the vast majority of AMD patients…
Author: Medical News Today
‘The Roadmap To Close The Gap For Vision’ – $70 Million Could Save The Sight Of Indigenous Australians
Presently Indigenous Australians suffer six times the blindness of mainstream Australians and 94 percent of vision loss in Indigenous Australians is unnecessary, preventable or treatable. ‘The Roadmap to Close the Gap for Vision’ is the first comprehen…
The Molecular Basis Of Touch Sensation
A gene known to control lens development in mice and humans is also crucial for the development of neurons responsible for mechanosensory function, as neurobiologists of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have now discover…
Braille-Like Texting App Eliminates Need To Look At Mobile Screen
Imagine if smartphone and tablet users could text a note under the table during a meeting without anyone being the wiser. Mobile gadget users might also be enabled to text while walking, watching TV or socializing without taking their eyes off what the…
Video Games Improve Eyesight
How we perceive the world tells us a lot about how the brain processes sensory information. At the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, McMaster University psychologist Daphne Maurer reported on how vi…
Dame Judi Dench Determined To Beat Macular Degeneration
Actor of film and stage, Dame Judi Dench, now filming her seventh James Bond film, Skyfall, where she plays 007’s MI5 boss M, has given a moving interview where she talks about her determination to beat macular degeneration, an eye condition that is…
Omega-3 Slows Down Retinitis Pigmentosa Progression
A report published Online First by Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, reveals that adults with retinitis pigmentosa who took vitamin A supplements over a period of four to six years, showed slower decline in annual rates of …
Prostaglandin Analogs And Laser Trabeculoplasty Prove Cost Effective For Treating Glaucoma
A study published Online First by Archives of Ophthalmology, reveals that glaucoma medication known as prostaglandin analogs (PGAs) and laser trabeculoplasty (LTP), a small invasive procedure both seem cost-effective options for patients with newly di…
New Operation For Complex Strabismus Or Cross Eyes Offers Faster Recovery, More Precise Results
People with strabismus (misalignment and limited movement of one or more eyes) are often teased about their crossed-eye appearance; those with more complex, disfiguring strabismus can become socially isolated and develop neck and back problems from hav…
New Glaucoma Drug Zioptan Wins FDA Approval
On Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Merck’s Zioptan, a once-daily preservative-free opthalmic solution of tafluprost, a prostaglandin analog for lowering high intra-ocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or with high…
Technology Lends Product Packaging A Voice To Aid Visually And Hearing Impaired
As the proportion of senior citizens grows, their special needs are gaining momentum. Human eyesight, for example, weakens with age. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has been developing new NFC-based applications that make life easier for the v…
Stress Pathway Identified As Potential Therapeutic Target To Prevent Vision Loss
A new study identifies specific cell-stress signaling pathways that link injury of the optic nerve with irreversible vision loss. The research, published by Cell Press in the February 9 issue of the journal Neuron, may lead to new strategies that will …
Successful Gene Therapy For Inherited Blindness
Gene therapy for congenital blindness has taken another step forward, as researchers further improved vision in three adult patients previously treated in one eye. After receiving the same treatment in their other eye, the patients became better able t…
Gene Therapy Proves Effective In Treating Blindness
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have conducted a recent study, published in Science Translational Medicine which focuses on gene therapy for congenital bli…
Windows To The Mind
The eyes are the window into the soul – or at least the mind, according to a new paper published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Measuring the diameter of the pupil, the part of the eye …
Researchers Develop Gene Therapy That Could Correct A Common Form Of Blindness
A new gene therapy method developed by University of Florida researchers has the potential to treat a common form of blindness that strikes both youngsters and adults. The technique works by replacing a malfunctioning gene in the eye with a normal work…
Retinitis Pigmentosa In Dogs Cured By Gene Therapy
Members of a University of Pennsylvania research team have shown that they can prevent, or even reverse, a blinding retinal disease, X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa, or XLRP, in dogs. The disease in humans and dogs is caused by defects in the RPGR gene a…
Stem Cell Treatment For Blindness Shows Promise In Trials
The first published results of trials using cells derived from human embryonic stem cells appear to show they have passed an initial safety hurdle…
How Protein In Teardrops Annihilates Harmful Bacteria
A disease-fighting protein in our teardrops has been tethered to a tiny transistor, enabling UC Irvine scientists to discover exactly how it destroys dangerous bacteria. The research could prove critical to long-term work aimed at diagnosing cancers an…
Risk Of Blindness Halved Over Last Decade
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most frequent cause of blindness in the Western World. A report from the University of Copenhagen and Glostrup Hospital in Denmark shows the number of new cases of blindness and severe visual loss in Denmar…