Specs might become redundant in 10 years

Washington: In a breakthrough that could do away with glasses for the shortsighted in 10 years, scientists have found the rogue gene that causes myopia, the most common eye disorder in the world.

Scientists have found a gene responsible for myopia or nearsightedness, a discovery that could lead to new treatment for the eye disorder, which is at present affecting a quarter of the world's population. Myopia happens when the focal point of an image falls just short of the retina at the rear of the eye, causing blurred distance vision.

It’s the most common eye disorder in the world but little is known about its genetic underpinnings.

Now, a team of scientists led by researchers at Duke University Medical Centre in Durham claimed that they have uncovered a gene, identified as RASGRF1, which triggers the vision problem.

“Because RASGRF1 is highly expressed in neurons and the retina, it is crucial to retinal function and visual memory consolidation,” said lead author Terri Young, a researcher in the Centre for Human Genetics at Duke.

Young and his team found several distinct spellings of DNA code near the RASGRF1 gene that had a strong association with focusing errors in vision in Caucasian people from several different regions, including Dutch, British and Australian subjects.

These findings were validated in six other Caucasian adult groups in a total of 13,414 subjects. When the scientists created mice that were missing the correct gene, these mice showed changes in their eye lenses.

“This was biologically convincing,” Young said. “The RASGRF1 provides a novel molecular mechanism to study so that we can work to prevent the most common cause of visual impairment.”

He said, "The eye is already an organ of choice for gene therapy, for example, because the eye's small volume and self-contained area allow the therapy to remain inside the eye in a concentrated volume.

“In addition, the eye's accessibility lets clinicians observe the effects of treatment over time with noninvasive methods that can illuminate and test the retina and other eye structures.”

Often the discovery of a gene still means that many years could pass before a treatment becomes available. However, gene therapies are already working well in some eye conditions, and myopia may be a good candidate condition for gene repair.

While many cases of myopia are mild, about two to three per cent are pathological cases with retinal detachment, premature glaucoma, macular bleeding, and glaucoma leading eventually to blindness, said Young, who has spent over a decade studying the severe form of myopia.

Up to 80 per cent of people in Singapore have myopia while about one in three Americans is suffering from the disease. Countries with a high prevalence of nearsightedness have a hard time finding fighter pilots, to give one example of how myopia affects a population.

The exact cause of nearsightedness is unknown, but two factors may be primarily responsible for its development: heredity and visual stress.