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Review
. 2020 Jan 16;13(1):15.
doi: 10.3390/ph13010015.

Current Trends in the Pharmacotherapy of Cataracts

Segewkal H Heruye  1 , Leonce N Maffofou Nkenyi  2 , Neetu U Singh  2 , Dariush Yalzadeh  3 , Kalu K Ngele  4 , Ya-Fatou Njie-Mbye  5 , Sunny E Ohia  5 , Catherine A Opere  2
Affiliations
Review

Current Trends in the Pharmacotherapy of Cataracts

Segewkal H Heruye et al. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). .

Erratum in

Abstract

Cataracts, one of the leading causes of preventable blindness worldwide, refers to lens degradation that is characterized by clouding, with consequent blurry vision. As life expectancies improve, the number of people affected with cataracts is predicted to increase worldwide, especially in low-income nations with limited access to surgery. Although cataract surgery is considered safe, it is associated with some complications such as retinal detachment, warranting a search for cheap, pharmacological alternatives to the management of this ocular disease. The lens is richly endowed with a complex system of non-enzymatic and enzymatic antioxidants which scavenge reactive oxygen species to preserve lens proteins. Depletion and/or failure in this primary antioxidant defense system contributes to the damage observed in lenticular molecules and their repair mechanisms, ultimately causing cataracts. Several attempts have been made to counteract experimentally induced cataract using in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo techniques. The majority of the anti-cataract compounds tested, including plant extracts and naturally-occurring compounds, lies in their antioxidant and/or free radical scavenging and/or anti-inflammatory propensity. In addition to providing an overview of the pathophysiology of cataracts, this review focuses on the role of various categories of natural and synthetic compounds on experimentally-induced cataracts.

Keywords: antioxidants; cataracts; glutathione; lens; lens crystallins; lens opacification; lens transparency; superoxide dismutase.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Characteristics of lens structures and major types of cataracts for location-based classification. (A) A schematic view of lens structures and corresponding types of cataracts. Slit lamp biomicroscopy photos showing (B) nuclear cataract, (C) cortical cataract, and (D) subcapsular posterior cataract. Copyright Elsevier (used with permission from Elsevier) [11].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scene viewed by normal vision (A) and a person with cataracts (B); sourced from NEI Media Library [13].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic presentation of the cross-sectional view of mammalian lens. Used with permission from Roberts J [39].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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