Cloud Lifted

Introduction

Cataract—an eye disease that affects people over 40— is caused due to clumping of long-lived structural proteins of the eye lens that contribute to its transparency. But it was unknown why and how the clumping occurs. Now scientists have found the mechanism of this crystallin polymerisation. They say there is an intermediate protein structure in the lens which has a folded and an unfolded domain. Exchange of precursors that aggregate proteins from folded domain in the structure to unfolded domain causes clumping. PNAS,

Source

Down To Earth, August 2011