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Tag: Vision Health

  • A Surprising Pufferfish Secret Could Help Treat Lazy Eye

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    A recent MIT study is offering a new approach to treating one of the most common eye disorders: lazy eye.

    Scientifically known as amblyopia, the disorder often occurs when an eye and the brain stop working together, with the brain resorting to supporting the other eye to compensate, leaving the amblyopic eye affected in the long term.

    Affecting around 2-4 percent of the U.S. population, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, premature children or those with developmental delays or a family history of lazy eye are most likely to be affected.

    While current treatments—eye patches, atropine eye drops, corrective lenses, and surgery—focus on forcing the impaired eye to become more active, they are often only effective during childhood at preventing permanent damage. The proposed new treatment revealed by The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT could be potentially effective even in adulthood.

    In the study—which is a continuation of Picower Professor Mark Bear’s decades-long research on amblyopia—MIT researchers anesthetized the retinas of the nonworking eye of mice suffering amblyopia. Then, using a toxin commonly found in pufferfish and porcupines called tetrodotoxin, the anesthesia essentially disables the mice’s eye for two days. Working as somewhat of a “reboot,” researchers saw a restored visual response in the subject’s brain.

    In previous studies, Bear’s team anesthetized both eyes or the working eye only, both resulting in positive outcomes. However, the most recent trial focusing on only the affected eye hints at a promising new approach.

    “It’s a pretty substantial step forward because it would be reassuring to know that vision in the good eye would not have to be interrupted by treatment,” said Bear in a press statement. “The amblyopic eye, which is not doing much, could be inactivated and ‘brought back to life’ instead.”

    Still, further research is needed before the research translates to a treatment for human patients.

    He added, “especially with any invasive treatment, it’s extremely important to confirm the results in higher species with visual systems closer to our own.”

    The extended deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 19, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    María José Gutierrez Chavez

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  • Association for Pediatric Vision Announces a Free Vision Screening Training Offered Nationwide

    Association for Pediatric Vision Announces a Free Vision Screening Training Offered Nationwide

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    TAMPA, Fla., August 21, 2023 (Newswire.com)
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    The Association for Pediatric Vision, a program of Lions World Vision Institute is excited to announce the launch of their newly created and designed vision screening curriculum, which will be offered for free to anyone interested in learning more about how to become a vision screener, especially for the screening of infants and youth ages 0 to 5 years. This curriculum was developed with federal grant funding and was created to bring awareness to the lack of vision screening offered to infants, toddlers, and children who are beginning their primary education in elementary schools across the country.

    Dr. Melissa Z. Petro, Association for Pediatric Vision’s Program Director, states, “Early vision screening can help identify potential problems with sight skills by detecting vision challenges that may hinder development and negatively affect social and emotional well-being. A pediatric optometrist or ophthalmologist can perform an eye exam, however, early screening by community professionals such as teachers, nurses, and even parents can help with early detection of vision challenges such as amblyopia, strabismus, and refractive errors that may cause visual development delays and affect a child’s quality of life.”

    Early screening is not available for some communities. Caregivers can find greater success in identifying vision issues with a standardized vision screening training program and become certified to conduct vision screening for young children. Association for Pediatric Vision (APV), is providing this certification for caregivers and other healthcare providers. The cost for certification is $99 for the five-module training. The training itself is completely free, but to become certified there is a fee. It is designed to walk a participant through vision background knowledge and screening essentials so screeners can provide the most accurate and up-to-date vision screening possible for children. To take advantage of this free five-hour vision screening course, participants can go to this link and sign up to take the course today. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OcqRAoxsxN3_UWUPEojVGXss3yi1AHUu50i75el9dRE/edit

    Dr. Petro predicts over 50 persons will be trained with this vision screening course this fall and hopes the awareness for the need for this service will grow along with the organization’s growth. “Vision is a strong predictor of academic performance in children, yet, one in four children have an undiagnosed vision problem.” Dr. Petro and her team aim to change this disparity one screening at a time.

    Lions World Vision Institute, based in Tampa Bay, Florida, is a nonprofit organization with international reach committed to honoring vision as a basic human right. Lions World Vision Institute offers a broad worldwide network of eye banks, physicians, researchers, and community-based services to exponentially increase impact and restore sight for more than 20,000 men, women, and children every year who needlessly suffer from corneal blindness or low vision. Visit the organization’s website at this link: https://lwvi.org/. 

    Source: Association for Pediatric Vision

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