WBH Science Week – Edition 8

What's Inside

  • Scientists develop potential new way of delivering gene therapy
  • Lack of sleep can cause blindness
    Ants with venom that can cause blindness found for first time in France
  • And, about ten more articles about the science and prevention of blindness

Editorial By Chris Hofstader

This was a slow week for news about the science and prevention of blindness so this is a relatively abbreviated edition of this digest. I found a number of the articles interesting and there are a couple in which the vocabulary was too dense for me to fully grasp. I hope those readers with more knowledge about the science will enjoy the harder ones.

Please, do not take medical advice from this or any other web site without first discussing such with a real ophthalmologist. There's an article below discussing traditional Indian medicine that simply does not work and can make an eye condition even worse. We get the articles to which we link from other online sources and bring them together so our readers can find them all in one place, we do not have the resources or expertise to vet every article we include so, please do not accept the information in these articles as advice but, rather, interesting information about which you might do more research and than also talk to a professional and certified ophthalmologist before using anything you read online.

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Science and Medicine

Scientists Develop Potential New Way to Deliver Gene Therapy

Scientists Develop Potential New Way to Deliver Gene Therapy. … Including neurodegenerative diseases, forms of blindness and even some cancers. This story comes to us from: Laboratory Equipment.

Lack of sleep could make you go blind, new study warns

Too much or too little shut-eye can increase the risk of developing glaucoma, scientists say. This story comes to us from: The Independent.

'Supercolony' of fire ants with sting that causes blindness found in France for first time

While only 1.5mm in size, the insects have arrived in France in huge numbers, sparking serious concerns for the ecological environment and the safety of people's pets. This story comes to us from: Daily Express.

New Study Finds Higher Prevalence of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Cases than Previously Determined and a High Degree of County Variation

New study from leading researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Michigan, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows higher prevalence rates of AMD, a leading cause of vision loss in the United States. This story comes to us from: Yahoo Finance.

The “Narrative Medicine” to humanize the cure

Land hereditary retinal dystrophies result in progressive loss of vision and are an important cause of blindness in the pediatric setting. This story comes to us from: breakinglatest.news.

REGENXBIO Presents Positive Interim Data from and the Expansion of Phase II ALTITUDE® Trial of RGX-314 for the Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Using Suprachoroidal Delivery

REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq: RGNX) today announced additional positive interim data from the ongoing Phase II ALTITUDE® trial of RGX-314 for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy (DR) without center-involved diabetic macular edema (CI-DME) using in-office suprachoroidal delivery. This story comes to us from: Yahoo Finance.

Dr Nikolas Pantikos on the genetics of eye disease

On this week’s show Niall and Dusty await the latest on Twitter and bid farewell to the fax machine and Google Hangouts. In more serious news we talk with University College London’s Dr Nikolas Pontikos about his project Eye2Gene, a device that can help identify rare eye diseases. This story comes to us from: TechCentral.ie.

Good Science, Bad Science. The ups and downs of ivermectin

I first came face-to-face with Bill Campbell where he stood outside the old stone fish house at the top of the Mall in Ramelton. As he was a newcomer to the Lennon river bank I stopped to ask who Bill was and why he was there. To my shame, I had never heard of him. Since his 2015 Nobel Prize for medicine this 92-year-old son of Co. Donegal has become an international celebrity. This story comes to us from: Slugger O'Toole.

Modi wants to export traditional Indian medicine to the world, but doctors warn against pseudoscience and quack cures

This is why I always include a warning at the top of this digest reminding readers to never take medical advice from a web site without first discussing said treatment with an actual physician.

Dr. K. V. Babu was scrolling through his Twitter feed one morning in March last year when an advert for eye drops caught his attention. Tweeted from the official handle of Patanjali Ayurved Limited, one of India’s largest manufacturers of Ayurvedic medicine, the advert claimed that the drops were “helpful in treating glaucoma or cataract, double vision, color vision, retinitis pigmentosa and night blindness." Dr. Babu, an ophthalmologist by training, was horrified. “How can they treat double vision with some drops!!” he exclaimed incredulously on Twitter. Retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, has no known cure, and cataracts cannot be treated without surgery, he told me over the phone from his home in Kannur, in the south Indian state of Kerala. This story comes to us from: codastory.com

Productivity Loss and Predictive Factors Among Visually Impaired Adults

Individuals with impaired vision have low employment status and their job participation and potential financial gain are reduced in comparison to those who have normal sight in both eyes. The world economic loss occurring as a result of impact of visual impairment was about 42 billion USD in 2000 and estimated to rise to 110 billion USD in 2020.9–11 More than 90% of global visual impairment burden is in developing countries. However the highest loss of productivity and economic burdens due to visual impairment were reported from developed countries and there were insufficient data in developing nations. This story comes to us from: Dove Medical Press.

Preventing Blindness

STOP wearing contact lenses in shower; expert warns it can lead to permanent vision loss

Apart from severe pain in the eye, it can also lead to visual impairments, possible vision loss or blindness if untreated. This story comes to us from: Times of India.

L V Prasad Eye Institute and CognitiveCare collaborate to utilize AI and ML for prevention of avoidable blindness in children

L V Prasad Eye Institute and CognitiveCare collaborate to utilize AI and ML for prevention of avoidable blindness in children. This story comes to us from: ANI.

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