Apple snail could help in restoring human vision

Apple snails have a remarkable ability to regenerate their eyes. The researchers see this discovery as a promising breakthrough that could pave the way for curing human eye diseases and restoring vision.

The golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) found in freshwater, shows uncanny resemblance with the human eye.

According to the recent research study from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, the apple snail has proved to be a novel organism to study eye regeneration. It also offers the opportunities to understand and find cure for eye conditions in humans like macular degeneration.

The study was led by Alice Accorsi, an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, and published in the journal Nature Communications.

In the groundbreaking research, they found out that apple snails possess complex camera-type eyes like humans. The team used the molecular scissors called CRISPER/Cas9 to genetically switch off the certain key genes in eye development.

They also established lineages of snails carrying those mutations, helping the researchers to better understand the process of regeneration.

“Our eyes are extremely important for perceiving our environment, yet when damaged are unable to recover,” Accorsi said.

“Essentially, we had no way to identify solutions for treating conditions like retinal degeneration or physical injury to the eye. But we now have a tractable system for investigating camera-type regeneration,” said Sanchez Alvarado, a developmental biologist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.