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BLOG: Royal treatment for DES?

ByDarrell E. White, MD

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While doing some research for my upcoming Dry Eye column in OSN, I was reacquainted with the scientific publishing site PLoS One. Man, is there a lot of fun stuff there! I’ve got a pretty vivid imagination, full of all kinds of ideas for projects and research, but even I wouldn’t think of putting rats on a swing to investigate DES associated with computer use. Nakamura, Imada and their co-authors used this model to evaluate the stress placed on lacrimal gland secretion with prolonged near vision/low blink rate activities. They showed that both the swinging rats and office workers evaluated showed a decrease in tear production that was “dose-related”: More hours exposed, both cumulative and per session, resulted in a greater decrease in tear generation.

In a follow-up study, the same author group hypothesizes that there is a defect in ATP-mediated mitochondrial activity in lacrimal gland cells in “stress-induced” DES. This is confirmed in their rat model, prompting a search for heretofore unexplored DES treatments that might re-charge the ATP-depleted mitochondria. Naturally they turn to bee products as a source of novel treatment options.

Seriously, wouldn’t everyone think of stuff from bees right then?

As funny as that leap may be, it turns out that there actually is a product from bees that increases tear production under conditions similar to using a computer screen: powdered royal jelly. That’s right, the food fed to the queen bee increases lacrimal gland production. Not only that, the researchers show that Royal Jelly (it just seems like it should be capitalized, doesn’t it?) works by maintaining ATP levels in the mitochondria of lacrimal gland cells.

I have no idea what the effective dose of royal jelly might be in humans, but our intrepid investigators in Japan have actually chosen a product that is readily available and appears to be relatively safe. There are at least 15 different brands and concoctions of bee royal jelly on Amazon.com. Who knows? Maybe the next DES breakthrough will provide its own buzz!

References:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0011119

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0106338

Disclosure: White reports he is a consultant for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan, Nicox, Shire and Eyemaginations and on the speakers board for Bausch + Lomb and Allergan.