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The deterioration or total loss of vision is one of the most prominent manifestations of aging, so scientists are working to find treatments that reduce its impact. The latest of these efforts was a study conducted by doctors at Harvard Medical School and published in the scientific journal Nature in early December.
Aging is a degenerative process that leads to tissue dysfunction and the central nervous system to lose its functional and regenerative capacity.
Vision loss problems vary among the elderly, the most important being “glaucoma” (glaucoma), degenerative macular disease that causes difficulty or inability to read or recognize faces, and degenerative diseases of the nervous system in general that cannot be cure and cause disability.
But the study, published recently in the journal Nature, has revived new hope, promising the possibility of restoring vision by reprogramming genes by restoring “epigenetic” genetic information from the juvenile stage to regenerate nerve axons after they are damage and then restore vision.
Promising success
According to the study, mammalian tissues keep a record of supragenetic genetic information for the period of youth, part of which is encoded, and this record can be used to improve the performance of tissue functions and enhance capacity. regenerative in the body of the organism.
Harvard Medical School geneticist David Sinclair and his colleagues reset the circadian rhythm of a group of cells to see if they could regenerate cells affected by aging, which has been practically applied to prematurely aging mice and the experiments have achieved very promising results.
As a result of the successful growth of new axons from embryonic stem cells that reached the brain, glaucoma progression stopped and affected mice regained almost half of their lost visual acuity, the first time vision has returned in mice with a condition similar to glaucoma.
Is incredible
Speaking to the press, the first investigator of the scientific team, David Sinclair, expressed his surprise at the achievement of the results, and confirmed his disbelief at the news of the sight of the rat when he received it from one of his assistants, at ten at night, since it was not thought before that there was the possibility of curing “glaucoma” – as for Saying-.
Previously, scientists tried to regenerate ganglion cells (a type of nerve cell in the retina) outside the eye to implant them again.
The new treatment technology is a huge scientific leap, as the ganglion cells will regenerate in their place, so you just need to regrow and reconnect.
Millions of people with diseases that impair or lose vision are waiting for the new treatment technology to emerge and begin to apply it in humans after completing all the stages of research and experimentation.
