What Do Cataracts have to do with Alzheimer’s?

Lee Goldstein, MD, PhD, Director of the Molecular Aging & Development Laboratory and Associate Director of the Center for Ophthalmic Research, discovered that Alzheimer’s patients all have the same unusual form of cataracts. This type of cataracts is not the same that cloud people’s eyesight as they get older.

Instead, they reside in the lens behind the iris, which means they don’t interfere with vision. What makes this discovery such a breakthrough is that these cataracts were composed of the same protein, b-amyloid, that forms sticky, tangled plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Goldstein and his team have also found that amyloid buildup appears earlier in the lens than the brain—a key finding that may have important clinical implications for diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s. Results of the discovery were reported in the Lancet medical journal.1

References:
1. Lancet. 2003 Apr 12;361(9365):1258-65