Reviewed by Lexie CornerApr 17 2025
In a examine funded by the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, researchers at Brown College counsel that gold nanoparticles (microscopic gold particles 1000’s of instances thinner than a human hair) might finally be used to assist restore imaginative and prescient in people affected by macular degeneration and different retinal problems.
Picture Credit score: Brown College
The examine confirmed that nanoparticles injected into the retina can efficiently stimulate the visible system and restore imaginative and prescient in mice with retinal illnesses. The findings counsel {that a} new sort of visible prosthesis, utilizing nanoparticles together with a small laser machine worn in glasses or goggles, might doubtlessly assist individuals with retinal illnesses regain their sight.
It is a new sort of retinal prosthesis that has the potential to revive imaginative and prescient misplaced to retinal degeneration with out requiring any form of sophisticated surgical procedure or genetic modification. We consider this method might doubtlessly rework therapy paradigms for retinal degenerative situations.
Jiarui Nie, Research Lead and Postdoctoral Researcher, Nationwide Institutes of Well being
Nie performed the analysis within the lab of Jonghwan Lee, an affiliate professor at Brown’s Faculty of Engineering and a school affiliate on the Carney Institute for Mind Science, who oversaw the examine as senior creator.
Thousands and thousands of individuals worldwide endure from retinal illnesses similar to retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. These situations injury photoreceptors, that are light-sensitive cells within the retina that convert mild into electrical pulses. Bipolar and ganglion cells, situated additional alongside the visible pathway, course of these pulses and transmit the data to the mind.
This new methodology bypasses broken photoreceptors by injecting nanoparticles immediately into the retina. When infrared mild is concentrated on the nanoparticles, they generate a small quantity of warmth, stimulating the bipolar and ganglion cells in the identical manner photoreceptor pulses would. Since macular degeneration primarily damages photoreceptors whereas leaving ganglion and bipolar cells intact, this method could supply a strategy to restore imaginative and prescient.
Within the examine, the researchers examined the nanoparticle methodology in each mouse retinas and dwell animals with retinal illnesses. They injected a liquid nanoparticle answer into the retinas, then projected shapes onto them utilizing patterned near-infrared laser mild. By monitoring mobile exercise with calcium alerts, the staff confirmed that the nanoparticles efficiently stimulated bipolar and ganglion cells in patterns similar to the projected shapes.
The experiments confirmed no detectable dangerous results from both the nanoparticle answer or laser stimulation, primarily based on metabolic markers for irritation and toxicity.
Probes confirmed that laser activation of the nanoparticles elevated exercise within the mice’s visible cortices, indicating that visible alerts had been being processed by the mind. The researchers consider this implies that imaginative and prescient was largely restored, which might present a basis for making use of comparable applied sciences to people sooner or later.
They purpose to develop a system for human use that integrates nanoparticles with a laser system put in in goggles or glasses. The goggles would have cameras to seize visible info from the setting, which might then management how the infrared laser is patterned. These laser pulses would activate the nanoparticles within the retina, doubtlessly enabling imaginative and prescient.
This method mirrors a way accepted by the FDA for human use a number of years in the past. That methodology mixed a digital camera system with a small electrode array, which was surgically implanted within the eye. In accordance with Nie, there are three key benefits to the nanoparticle method.
First, it’s considerably much less invasive.
In distinction to surgical procedure, “an intravitreal injection is likely one of the easiest procedures in ophthalmology,” Nie defined.
There are additionally sensible advantages. The earlier methodology’s decision was restricted by the electrode array, which had round 60 pixels. Because the nanoparticle answer covers all the retina, the brand new methodology might doubtlessly cowl the total visual view.
Moreover, as a result of the nanoparticles reply to near-infrared mild fairly than seen mild, the system wouldn’t essentially intrude with an individual’s remaining imaginative and prescient.
Whereas additional analysis is required earlier than this method will be examined clinically, Nie famous that the preliminary findings present that the strategy is possible.
Nie added, “We confirmed that the nanoparticles can keep within the retina for months with no main toxicity. And we confirmed that they will efficiently stimulate the visible system. That’s very encouraging for future functions.”
The examine was supported by the Nationwide Eye Institute of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (R01EY030569), the China Scholarship Council, the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, and South Korea’s Alchemist Venture Program (RS-2024-00422269).
Co-authors embrace Professor Kyungsik Eom from Pusan Nationwide College, Brown Professor Tao Lui, and Brown college students Hafithe M. Al Ghosain, Alexander Neifert, Aaron Cherian, Gaia Marie Gerbaka, and Kristine Y. Ma.
Journal Reference:
Nie, J. et al. (2025) Intravitreally Injected Plasmonic Nanorods Activate Bipolar Cells with Patterned Close to-Infrared Laser Projection. ACS Nano. doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c14061
