QUESTION: Professor - WHY did you bother?

ANOTHER BIG DIAMOND GETS THROWN INTO THE TRASH CAN!
I finally found a research report published in 2002 which gives the reason behind the formation of my yellow /brunescent cataracts:

http://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2418383

In this report, xanthurenic acid, a yellow photodegradation product of tryptophan, and its glucoside, which is fluorescent, are named as two key causative agents in brunescent cataract.
Normally, Alpha crystallin does not absorb UVA radiation.
But when these two "photosensitizers" are formed in the lens, they strongly combine with Alpha crystallin so that the crystallin then does absorb UVA radiation. When it absorbs UVA, singlet oxygen is released, which then causes cross-linking of other lens proteins, giving rise to the characteristic turbidity (cataract). As more and more of these colored agents accumulate in the nucleus of the lens, more and more UVA is absorbed, so less and less light gets through until total blindness results.
This nuclear cataract, which gradually develops a yellow and then a brown color, is common in myopes, and there are of course astronomical numbers of myopic people in the world today. Moreover, some authors say that photosensitizers are also implicated in other types of cataracts which are not colored.
So we can appreciate the enormous importance of this discovery back in 2002. It explains the reason for a major part of human cataract blindness. But, in the 15 years which have passed since the publication of this paper, predictably, the eye profession never made one single attempt to develop a method to remove these phototoxic colored substances from the human lens, which are causing so much damage to human vision.
I contacted one of the lead authors of the above paper, and asked him why he even bothered to do his research - what was he trying to achieve? Taken aback, he said: "Why do you ask"? Then, I asked him if any members of the eye profession had attempted to use these findings to relieve the suffering of cataract patients. "No", he retorted, "ZERO!" "ZERO!" "You see, the surgery is so successful", he said. But indeed, if that's what he thinks, it is baffling why he did the research in the first place!!!

CureZone forum readers - would you please throw some light on this baffling question!

The members of the eye profession, who still have their own natural eyesight, may not care or want to use these results to save the sight of their patients. But for we cataract patients who have not yet succumbed to the knife, it is an urgent priority to think of a way of chasing these photosensitizers, xanthurenic acid and its glucoside, out of the human lens - not only just for ourselves, but for the sake of the whole human race. Tweet