{"id":2104,"date":"2026-08-29T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2026-08-28T23:25:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T23:25:33","slug":"light-activated-drugs-eye-drops-blind-mice-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/en\/2026\/08\/29\/light-activated-drugs-eye-drops-blind-mice-see\/","title":{"rendered":"Eye Drops Against Blindness: Light-Activated Drugs Let Blind Mice See Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"netgu-909595169\" class=\"netgu-before-content netgu-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6258556257245998\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6258556257245998\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"3494115342\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A research consortium has developed light-activatable drugs that let blind mice perceive light again &ndash; without gene therapy, implants or special lighting. Two of the most promising compounds even worked as simple eye drops.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Drugs instead of gene therapy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The consortium, led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), uses &#8220;photopharmacology&#8221; &ndash; a technique that controls a molecule\u2019s activity with light. The new compounds (called &#8220;prosthe6&#8221;) take over the function of the photoreceptors that degenerate in diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Results in mice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Completely blind mice regained their natural preference for dark environments within hours of treatment &ndash; via eye drops or an injection into the eye &ndash; a sign of restored vision. The animals showed no signs of pain or damage to the eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hopeful, but still early<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The molecules are seen as possible drug candidates for people with degenerative retinal diseases. That is still a long way off, however &ndash; so far this is early research in an animal model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sources: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2026\/08\/260828005224.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ScienceDaily<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/1136093\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EurekAlert<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"netgu-3490041709\" class=\"netgu-after-content netgu-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6258556257245998\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6258556257245998\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"4559785002\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Light-activated drugs let blind mice perceive light again \u2013 with no gene therapy or implants. Two compounds worked as simple eye drops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2112,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/2112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}