Researchers find gene causing myopia in kids who read

Washington D.C., Sep 1: Researchers have found a gene that causes myopia in teens if they read an hour or more each day during their childhood.According to the researchers, those with a certain variant of the gene – called APLP2 – were five times more likely to develop myopia in their teens if they read an hour or more each day during their childhood.Andrei Tkatchenko of the Columbia University Medical Center said that this was the first known evidence of gene-environment interaction in myopia.They found that mice exposed to a visual environment that mimics reading were less likely to develop myopia when little APLP2 protein was present in the eye.Tkatchenko said that by reducing the level of APLP2 in the eye, they could reduce susceptibility to environmentally induced myopia, and added that this gave them an opportunity to develop a therapy to prevent myopia in everyone, regardless of the APLP2 variant they carry.Tkatchenko explained that once the eye has elongated, it cannot shrink, and added that the critical period for myopia development was during elementary and middle school.He added that myopia increases the risk of developing cataracts, glaucoma, and retinal detachment later in life, which could lead to blindness.