More advanced approaches to treating problems with the eyes

[ostas12345]

Hello

sorry for being a bit of a "futurist" in the case of dry eye disease, but I always liked science fiction
I have a question about somewhat "more advanced" approaches to treating dry eye disease and other problems with eyes
of course I am trying to cure my dry eye disease with standard treatments as well, but with no big improvement so far
Does anyone have any information about below approaches?

1. Stem cells
I heard that some blind people became cured from blindness with the use of stem cells. Can somehow stem cells be used in the case of dry eye disease as well? common sense says that if blindness can be cured with stem cells then dry eye disease should somehow be "easier" to cure. Does anyone have any information about stem cells treatment on dry eyes and clinics where it might be done?

2. Gene therapy
This kind of therapy is getting quite more popular nowadays.
Maybe there is some way to influence DNA so that people can produce more moisture with their glands or maybe ocular surface can be improved by change in DNA/RNA and behavior of cells on the eyes or maybe bigger production of regenerative proteins and inhibition of harmfuls agents
It was sometimes implied in articles that I read that dry eye disease might be caused by some genetic factors
Perhaps rosacea, SJS, Sjogren's disease, etc. might be caused by some genetic aberrations and predispositions

3. Xenotransplantation
I heard recently that some organs from animals can be transplanted to humans when animal's DNA is edited before transplant, so that immunological rejection of foreign organ in human body is reduced or removed
Can eyes or eye parts be transplanted to humans from animals after they undergo special DNA editing so that there is no immunological rejection?

4. Artificial conjunctivas
Can we somehow scrape or cut off most outermost layers of the eyes (conjunctiva, cornea) possibly responsible for all this pain in dry eye disease and replace this stuff with artificial layers made out of plastic, silicone or some special material? I was inspired by the progress in dentistry. We can currently replace natural, painful, faulty teeth with artificial, painless, imperishable teeth, as far as I know

5. Bionic Eyes
What if a person had one normal, natural (painful) eye and one bionic, completely artificial eye (with no pain)? Wouldn't that be hot?
Artificial eye could be used to for demanding tasks requiring prolonged concentration without blinking like reading or working while natural eye could be used when bigger vision acuity and better perception of colors is needed
We could remove or scrape off the front parts of eye and replace it with some bionic, cybernetic components that would look like a normal eye. We could send visual impulses to retina behind the eye properly translated so that the brain could understand these signals
I heard that there are Argus devices in development which might work this way with stimulating the retinas behind the eyes, although it doesn't give good sight yet as far as I know

6. Connection of camera to the human brain
this concept might go a bit further than previous one. What about transmitting signal wirelessly from digital camera directly to a chip implanted in optic nerve behind the eyes or in visual cortex even behind the optic nerve?
I heard about recently developed device Orion with not very astounding results so far

7. Organ cultivation
This possibly upcoming medicine technology could be a breakthrough in the whole medicine. Is it already or soon possible to cultivate autologous parts of the eye from stem cells and transplant these eye parts to patients with dry eye disease (and remove old, defective parts of the eyes)? I was thinking if it could be possible to use autologous stem cells to cultivate autologous eyelids with all meibomian glands, conjunctivas, corneas, or perhaps the whole eyes. Does anyone have any information about this concept? and/or clinics where such things might be researched and experimented?

8. Nanorobots
This possibly upcoming medicine technology could revolutionize the whole medicine. Swarm of nanorobots controlled by in-lab computer could enter our eyes or body in general and remove all harmful, pro-inflammatory or defective agents from our eyes and whole body. They could also reconstruct whole eyes, meibomian, lacrimal glands and eyelids. Does anyone have any information about this concept?

9. Anything else?
Does anyone know about any modern medical technology that would ultimately solve these problems with dry eyes and bring our lives back to normal?

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi there,

Sorry you didn't get any replies. I have no information to be able to respond to any except #1 - stem cells. Exercise extreme caution because the ethics of the regenerative medicine industry are horrific. There are lots of companies and clinics flat-out lying about their results and also about their FDA approval status. People have been blinded by stem cell treatments for macular degeneration. - In the dry eye world, we are currently dealing with some extremely deceptive regenerative medicine players. See biologiceyedrops.org for more information.

And here is more information with some links to what the FDA says about it all. They aren't, frankly, outnumbered and just can't keep on top of all the illegal stem cell clinics and related businesses.
https://www.biologiceyedrops.org/fda-weighs-in

[Tardigrade]

I did PRP for my knee arthrosis, stage 2: it saved my knee just with 2 rounds, i could live again (last year)

But it doesn't mean it will work for such a delicate zone like meibomian glands.

[incocell]

Many new technologies, especially biotechnology, have risen in the last decades and are bringing new treatment options for
human diseases, especially mRNA and gene editing. I imagined, that we could be able to modify the nerves, genetically
probably ex vivo, which are connected to the meibum glands and lacrimal glands, so that the nerves are sending constant signals to glands, to produce
fluid. This approach is interesting, especially for ocular surface-related dry eyes, for example, after wearing contact lenses or after eye laser surgeries, or for
age-related dry eyes.

[Tardigrade]

Yes ! I think future will bring relief, but...when ? ;-)