A gene that causes shortsightedness has been pinpointed by British scientists, paving the way for eye drops that could make glasses history. Within just ten years, a drug that prevents short-sightedness or stops it in its tracks could be in widespread use。
The latest research, by an international team led by experts at King's College London (KCL)， offers hope to millions。
To find the gene, the first to be linked to short-sightedness, or myopia, the researchers compared the DNA of more than 4,000 British twins. Twins are often used in such studies because it is easier to distinguish the different effects of nature and nurture. They then confirmed their results by studying the genetics of another 13,000 British, Dutch and Australian individuals。
KCL researcher Pirro Hysi, the study's lead author, said: "We have known for many years that the most important risk factor for being short-sighted is having parents who are shortsighted and for the first time we are identifying genes that may be involved in passing on this susceptibility."
Chris Hammond, also of KCL, said: "Myopia, or shortsightedness, is the most common eye problem, affecting over a third of adults in the UK. People who are extremely short-sighted carry significant risks of future vision loss. The retina can peel away from the back of the eye like wallpaper off a wall."
"While we believe that environmental risk factors such as a lot of close work and lack of outdoor activity are implicated, we have not previously understood how people become short-sighted. "
"We hope that by understanding the mechanisms we can stop children from becoming shortsighted and stop short-sighted children from becoming more short-sighted."
A second study, by Dutch researchers, identified a second short- sightedness gene. Ultimately, there could be dozens behind the condition。
Drugs that counter their effect and stop the eyeball from overgrowing could be available in just a decade, said Hammond. Other options include gene therapy - injecting "healthy" genes into the eye。
Although the eye drops would not help adults who are already short-sighted, they could be of huge benefit to their children。
However, today's youngsters can take some simple steps to try to discourage shortsightedness. Terri Young of Duke University said: "People need to go outside and look at the horizon. Today's near work forces our eyes to be constantly in tension to focus on reading papers and watching monitors."
英國(guó)科學(xué)家日前找到了誘發(fā)近視的基因，從而為眼藥水改寫眼鏡歷史肅清了道路。十年之內(nèi)，一種預(yù)防近視或讓近視不會(huì)再加深的藥物將會(huì)問世，并且被廣為使用。
倫敦大學(xué)國(guó)王學(xué)院專家們所領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的一個(gè)國(guó)際小組的最新研究為百萬(wàn)人帶來了希望。
為了找出這種與近視有關(guān)的首個(gè)基因，研究人員比較過4000多對(duì)英國(guó)雙胞胎的基因。因?yàn)橐噪p胞胎來做研究比較，更容易區(qū)分出天與后天的不同影響。然后，他們又研究了1萬(wàn)3000名英國(guó)人、荷蘭人和澳洲人的基因，印驗(yàn)證了他們先前的研究結(jié)果。
倫敦大學(xué)國(guó)王學(xué)院的研究員、該研究的主要作者皮若-海斯說：“很多年來我們都知道近視的最重要風(fēng)險(xiǎn)因素是父母近視，如今我們首次發(fā)現(xiàn)這種缺損性遺傳的基因基礎(chǔ)。”
同樣來自倫敦大學(xué)國(guó)王學(xué)院的克里斯-哈蒙德說道：“近視是最常見的眼病，超過三分之一的英國(guó)人都是近視。近視程度嚴(yán)重的人群將來有可能會(huì)失明。視網(wǎng)膜會(huì)像墻紙一樣從眼球后部開始脫落。”
“我們一直認(rèn)為環(huán)境因素，比如工作過度、缺少室外活動(dòng)，是導(dǎo)致近視的原因，但此前我們一直不知道人們的眼睛是怎么近視的。”
“我們希望借助對(duì)相關(guān)機(jī)制的理解，預(yù)防孩子出現(xiàn)近視癥狀，或是避免孩子度數(shù)加深。”
另外一項(xiàng)由荷蘭研究人員進(jìn)行的研究確認(rèn)了另外一個(gè)近視相關(guān)基因。最終，與近視相關(guān)的基因可能會(huì)有幾十個(gè)。
哈蒙德說，抵消近視基因作用、防止眼球過度生長(zhǎng)的藥物10年內(nèi)即可問世， 屆時(shí)其他療法也會(huì)出現(xiàn)，包括基因療法——給眼睛注入“健康”基因。
盡管眼藥水對(duì)已經(jīng)近視的成年人沒有幫助，但對(duì)他們的孩子還是大有益處的。
然而，如今的年輕人很容易就可避免近視或降低度數(shù)，杜克大學(xué)的特里-揚(yáng)說：“人們得到外面走走，看看地平線。如今很多工作讓眼睛持續(xù)緊張地盯著報(bào)紙和屏幕看。”
