Later this year, a handful of people with a rare eye condition will receive a novel injection that is designed to quite literally turn back time.
Nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy—known as NAION—can cause sudden blindness when blood flow to the optic nerve is blocked….Whatever its cause, there are no treatments for NAION….
Scientists hope to change that with what is potentially much more than an eye treatment. The injection will test a new gene therapy that, instead of targeting specific genetic mutations that cause NAION, attempts to return certain optic-nerve cells to their pre-NAION state. It would be the equivalent of pressing a biological rewind button that takes the affected cells back to a younger condition—one in which they haven’t yet been struck by NAION or any other disease.
To some scientists, this sounds wildly ambitious. To others, extremely unlikely. Either way, it is just the kind of big—and controversial—swing that is emblematic of the growing field of science devoted to untangling and reversing what is a central fact of life: aging.
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If successful, the treatment could potentially be used for more common age-related eye conditions like glaucoma—and even other chronic diseases like dementia, arthritis, and heart disease. And it is only one of a growing suite of potential treatments designed to address aging, as scientists race to reverse time at a cellular level.
