Glaucoma

A wearable sensor for eye pressure sensing, a plastic scanner and new treatment solution for stab wounds have triumphed as global winners of the 2021 James Dyson Award, impressing judges as clever concepts designed to solve real-world problems.

Glaucoma can cause vision loss that's currently irreversible. But now scientists have found that removing a membrane in the eye could help transplanted cells migrate into the optic nerve and repair the connections, potentially restoring lost vision.

Presently, glaucoma is treated via daily-administered eye drops, surgery, or implanted devices – none of which are guaranteed to be successful. In the future, however, it's possible that a twice-yearly injection could do the trick.

Using gene therapy, Harvard scientists have restored vision to mice suffering glaucoma by rewinding the aging process in their cells. The team says the research is a proof of concept for slowing the symptoms of aging with epigenetics.

Researchers in Australia are claiming an important breakthrough in glaucoma research, demonstrating how the degenerative condition can be treated using an innovative form of gene therapy that repairs damaged optic nerve cells.

Scientists in the UK have been putting an AI to the test for diagnosing glaucoma, with the results of the trial indicating it can pick up on progression of the disease 18 months earlier than current methods.

The Injectsense implant is designed to constantly monitor a glaucoma patient's intraocular pressure, transmitting readings to the cloud.

​Glaucoma occurs when a blockage causes aqueous humor fluid to accumulate within the eye faster than it can drain out. This increases intraocular pressure, which can in turn damage the optic nerve, causing blindness. A new implant, however, may be particularly effective at reducing that pressure.

An exciting breakthrough has revealed a new hypothesis behind the cause of glaucoma, a common degenerative eye disease. The study found a high number of T-cells present in the retinas of those suffering from the disease, suggesting the condition may have a previously undetected autoimmune cause.

A study has found a correlation between some degenerative eye diseases and Alzheimer’s disease. No mechanism explaining the connection has been proposed but it is thought these eye conditions may help physicians identify patients at risk of developing Alzheimer’s before major symptoms appear.

​In recent years, we've heard of at least two different implants designed to measure the intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients' eyes, potentially preventing blindness. Yet another such implant, this one known as Eyemate, recently became commercially available in Europe.

Although glaucoma causes blindness by destroying retinal cells, research has shown that orally-ingested curcumin – a chemical derived from the spice turmeric – can help keep that from happening. Now, scientists are stating that newly-developed curcumin eye drops could be even more effective.