Week in review: Happy docs, 4D cornea, Viagra strikes again

A weekly roundup of ophthalmic news from around the web.

Medscape just released the 2019 National Physician Burnout, Depression & Suicide Report and there’s good news: Ophthalmologists are the 3rd happiest of 29 physician specialties. They’re also among the least likely to work long hours and are better than most specialties at seeking professional help when they need it. Gold star! Medscape

Scientists have unveiled the world’s first 4D corneas (because regular 3D tissues are old news, they explain in Advanced Functional Materials). The fourth dimension—time—is what allows a 3D material to adopt a new size, shape or function after exposure to a stimuli. In this case, the team exposed a flat circular gel containing corneal stromal cells to a serum that causes the gel’s edges to contract at different rates, creating a bowl-like cornea over 5 days’ time. Lead author Che Connon, PhD, says that one day the approach could enable surgeons to “implant tissue in one shape, which then develops into a more complex, functional shape within the body.” Newcastle University

Researchers are gearing up for the first human trial utilizing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for dry AMD. The 12-year-old technique—dialing a patient’s blood cells back in time to form iPSCs, which can be coaxed into becoming retinal pigment epithelial cells—has shown promise in animal models of AMD. Now, researchers at the National Eye Institute aim to test the strategy in humans. National Eye Institute

Meanwhile, a competing AMD therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells is entering phase 2 trials at the University of Southern California, STAT reported this week. “You know where we are putting our bets,” USC investigator Mark Humayun told STAT. But, he added, both types of stem cells hold promise for treating AMD. STAT

What do donuts and Viagra have in common? A Massachusetts man discovered the answer after downing an entire 30-ml bottle of liquid sildenafil, Viagra’s active ingredient. The man was no newbie to the drug—“He was a frequent sildenafil user prior to this episode and noted transient photophobia with sildenafil use in the past,” his doctors reported in JAMA Ophthalmology—but this time, things went terribly wrong. After 2 months of debilitating night blindness, photophobia and donut-shaped central field defects, he presented to the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary with bilateral central ring scotomata. The authors propose that excess sildenafil irreversibly damages retinal photoreceptors by inhibiting phosphodiesterase type 6. JAMA Ophthalmology