Mir Alam Siddique, Basant Kumar Tiwary and Satya Bhusan Paul

Guwahati, May 3: Three scientists from Assam have “discovered” the mechanism of cataract formation, which was recognised by London-based Royal College of Ophthalmologists — a leading eye institute in the world — in their prestigious research journal Eye.

The research was conducted by a group comprising eye specialist of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Mir Alam Siddique, scientist of the life science department of Assam University, Silchar, Basant Kumar Tiwary and biochemist of Assam University, Silchar, Satya Bhusan Paul.

Siddique said their findings would provide an opportunity for further research work that may lead to the invention of medicines, which could replace the surgical management of cataract.

Surgery is the only way to treat a cataract till now.

He said the findings were the outcome of the dedicated research since 2005.

“When we communicated our discovery to the international community in 2009, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London, after thorough examination and consultation with other experts finally gave recognition and published it in their most prestigious research journal, Eye, in April this year,” Siddique said.

“Our findings have been also archived by the United States National Library of Medicine in Pubmed,” he said.

He said they chose this topic for research, as cataract is a major problem globally, with 17 million people losing their sight to it and 28,000 new cases being reported every day.

Approximately 25 per cent of the population over 65 years of age and about 50 per cent over 80 across the world have lost vision because of cataract.

Cataract is also a major cause of blindness in India, with high occurrence rate in Assam.

A cataract is a clouding of the eye’s lens. The lens, made mostly of water and protein, is built to let light pass through it and focus on the retina. Sometimes protein clumps cloud small areas of the lens, blocking light from the retina.

Siddique said it was not known what triggers the disintegration of the constituents of lens membranes, particularly in the old age, in which the lens starts turning opaque.

He said their research has discovered that there is a progressive reduction of phospholipid (the major structural lipid of cellular membranes) contents of proteolipids (protein-lipid combinations) with progress and maturation of cataracts.

“With a disproportionate alteration or increase in the protein moiety suggests a cleavage of these complexes at a stage of maturation of cataract. They inferred a cleavage of proteolipids, indicative of membrane disintegration, because proteolipids are the major constituents of membranes of lens fibres,” he said.