Thursday, May 27, 2021

Fighting Eye Diseases with Brazilian Green Propolis

Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Volume 140, August 2021, 111740

In 2020, an estimated 596 million people worldwide had distance vision impairment and a further 510 million had uncorrected near vision impairment, which can profoundly affect individuals, families, and society. Currently, the ultimate goal in ophthalmology research is to establish news actions other than medical that may be effective for the treatment of eye diseases. To a similar extent, as nature has provided an unlimited source of biologically-active compounds, scientists have sought resources in fauna and flora to treat certain major eye diseases. Thus, we enjoyed reading the excellent review article developed by Zhao and colleagues who discussed the latest developments in therapeutic quercetin for the treatment of various ophthalmic diseases. Due to various biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fibrosis activities, the authors appropriately discuss the clinical application of quercetin in keratoconus, Graves’ orbitopathy, ocular surface, cataracts, glaucoma, retinoblastoma, and other retinal diseases.

Considering the important clinical data, we also would like to express some thoughts that may open the debate about the possible viability of propolis in the ophthalmological field. In fact, as pure natural molecules isolated from plants have shown scientifically-proven benefits for ocular tissues, the protective effects of propolis in certain major eye diseases could play an important role in this scenario...


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