Re: Assignment

It's the same sad story everywhere. The international ophthalmology consortium wants to do nothing else except surgery. That said, eye drops for cataract are sold in various countries where the consortium has less control, such as Isotine Eye Drops in India for example. Some of these eye drops may ameliorate some types of cataract, but for example Isotine, in addition to Ayurvedic herbs, contains mineral "bhasmas" (zinc and copper salts). Now, zinc and copper ions enhance the "chaperone" activity of alpha-crystallin, which would then de-aggregate beta- and gamma:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/iub.176/pdf

But zinc and copper ions directly also cause massive "sheet aggregation" of gamma- crystallin:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26579725

The conclusion is clear. If somebody already has advanced cataract, they will likely not have any free alpha-crystallin left - they will only have beta and gamma crystallins left in the lens. In that case, zinc and copper can act only on the gamma crystallin, and they would probably make the cataract a lot worse. Tweet