Gold Contact Lenses Could Help Alleviate Color Blindness

Color blindness is a common complaint, especially among male patients, yet a cure remains elusive.
Efforts have focused mainly on using wearable glasses to alleviate symptoms and provide full-color vision.
A new study has pointed to the efficacy of using gold nanoparticles to provide patients with color.

If you were around during the 1990s, you might remember a book called Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by the American author John Gray. The rough premise of the book is that there are fundamental differences in the psychology of men and women which align with obvious biological differences, too. The book sold 15 million copies in the 1990s and led to an explosion in “his and hers” products of all shapes and sizes.

Some differences between men and women are generally easier to see, whereas others are more subtle or hidden, be they psychological or not. One stark difference that we can appreciate is the significant difference in the rates of color blindness. In this particular battle in the “war of the sexes,” women are the clear victors;only 0.5% of females are affected by color vision deficiency (CVD), while 8% of their male counterparts are.¹

CVD has been known to ophthalmologists for centuries, yet a definitive cure remains elusive. Indeed until recently, there was very little clinicians could do to treat the condition. While it is likely to be a truly ancient condition, the first “discovery” of CVD is attributed to English scientist John Dalton in 1974. Like his brother, Dalton confused scarlet with green, and pink with blue. He assumed that his vitreous humor was tinted blue, thus selectively absorbing longer wavelengths.

If I Should Die Before I Wake, Take My Eyes to be Studied for CVD

Insisting that his eyes be dissected after his death, Dalton’s last wish autopsy revealed nothing affecting the humor. However, DNA extracted from his preserved eye tissue showed that Dalton was a deuteranope, meaning that he lacked the middle wave photopigment of the retina.²Since then, scientists have discovered far more about CVD and its various forms.

CVD is usually split into three categories. The first is red/green color blindness, including deuteranomaly which makes green appear redder; protanomaly makes red look more green and less bright; whereas protanopia and deuteranopia make it hard to tell the difference between green and red at all. The next category is less common and involves difficulty with blue/yellow colors; tritanomaly makes it hard to tell the difference between blue and green, and between yellow and red; and tritanopia makes you unable to tell the difference between blue and green, purple and red, and yellow and pink. Finally, the relatively rare monochromacy means you cannot see color at all.³

Gold Contact Lenses Could Help Alleviate Color Blindness — *She just cannot believe he is unable to see red and green.*

As a cure for CVD remains elusive, sufferers of the condition have opted for wearables to help them see a full range of color. Indeed, if you type something like “seeing color for the first time” on YouTube you will find a series of heartwarming videos where CVD patients are gifted with glasses that allow them to see color properly for the first time in their life. The shock is often strong yet joyful … so bring some tissues.

Gold: You’ve got the Power to Know

Where glasses to help alleviate CVD are becoming more common, contact lenses are still a relative novelty. Attempts have been made in the past, but according to the England and United Arab Emirates-based researchers behind Gold Nanocomposite Contact Lenses for Color Blindness Management, contact lenses previously designed to help mitigate CVD experienced problems with toxicity and effectiveness. As a result, they decided to attempt to create a contact lens with integrated gold nanoparticles targeted for red/green CVD application.

The researchers found that “the transmission spectra of the developed nanocomposite lenses were analogous to those of the commercial CVD wearables, and their water retention and wettability capabilities were superior to those in some of the commercially available contact lenses.” Three sets of the gold nanoparticles were studied at different sizes (12, 40 and 80nm) and for each of the nanoparticle sets, four nanocomposites with varying concentrations were fabricated. An increase in size showed an increase in the transmission bandwidth, and the transmission spectra of the 12 and 40nm gold nanocomposite lenses were “very comparable to those of the commercial and research-based CVD wearables.”¹

As the gold nanoparticles were incorporated with the hydrogel material of the lenses (HEMA), copolymerization of HEMA with a silicone-based hydrogel will be required to ensure high oxygen permeability of the lenses and thus, maintain their efficacy. That being said, the results of the study appear conclusive and that this gold nanocomposite lens is effective at comfortably alleviating CVD. So perhaps we can prepare for even more heartwarming YouTube videos to come, only this time with lenses instead of glasses.

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