See the light with contraceptives
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SMALL PRINT: A COMMON contraceptive drug could do more than prevent pregnancy – new findings from University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin suggest it can also bolster light-detecting cells in the eye in mouse models of degenerative blindness.
The study, published in the Journal of Neurochemistry , found that the drug Norgestrel, a synthetic progestin commonly used in hormonal contraception, could help prevent a type of cell-death called apoptosis in retinal cells growing in the lab.
Then the researchers went on to find that in mice that model the degenerative eye condition retinitis pigmentosa , which can lead to blindness as light-detecting cells in the retina die, Norgestrel appeared to protect the light-detecting cells.
“The drug seems to work by stimulating the production of a protein survival factor called FGF from neighbouring cells in the eye and this helps the light-detecting cells to survive and the animals to see,” says Prof Tom Cotter from UCC’s biochemistry department.
“It ‘beefs up’ the cells, makes them stronger and better able to resist the destructive effects of the damaged gene that causes the disease. At the moment we still don’t know if the drug will also work in humans.”
The scientists hope to begin a study next year to see if the protective effects of the contraceptive that are seen in animal models are also experienced by humans, according to a release from UCC.
The research was supported by Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and Fighting Blindness Ireland, and will now be extended to other eye conditions, such as glaucoma, with funding from the Health Research Board. |
