These Snails Can Regrow Their Eyes — Could They Help Treat Eye Injuries in Humans?

Regeneration is in the eye of the golden apple snail – literally. A study in the journal Nature communications Look at the regenerative properties of the Pomme d’Or snail, especially in his eyes. Like humans, these snails have camera -like eyes and understand how they regenerate could lead to advanced medical treatments for humans with eye injury.

It may seem strange that we, humans, have eyes similar to snails, but this ocular connection conducted Alice ALICEI, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, to study possible ocular regeneration.

“Apple snails are an extraordinary organization,” added to a press release. “They offer a unique opportunity to study the regeneration of complex sensory organs.

In addition to regeneration, for this study, Accorsi and his team also worked on means to modify the genome of the apple snail. This will help the research team understand how molecular genes and mechanisms help ocular regeneration.

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Quick reproduction of snails

For the study, Accorsi and his team selected the Pomme d’Or snail – Pomacea Canaliculata – Due to his camera type eyes. Originally in the freshwater areas of South America, the Pomme d’Or snail has become rather invasive and is now frequently found in the rest of the world, thanks to its rapid reproduction rate.

This characteristic also contributed to the reason why it was an ideal specimen for this study.

“Apple snails are resilient, their generation time is very short and they have a lot of babies,” added to a press release.

Eye regeneration of snails

To see how the snail eyes regenerate, the research team amputating an eye and would observe the regrowth process. During a period of one month, the team noted that to reach a complete regeneration, the injury would first need to heal completely, which only took 24 hours.

The team then observed that specialized cells began to reform certain parts of the eye, including the objective and the retina. This process took place over about a week and a half.

At 15 days, all eyes structures were present, including the optic nerve. However, it took a few more weeks before everything was completely regenerated.

“We still have no conclusive evidence that they can see images, but anatomically, they have all the components necessary to form an image,” said added in a press release. “It would be very interesting to develop a behavioral test to show that snails can treat stimuli using their new eyes in the same way that they did with their original eyes. This is something on which we work.”

CRISPR genes and snails

During their experience, the research team also observed which genes became active during the regeneration process. They noted that the genes became active immediately after amputation and that around 9,000 genes were expressed at different rates, compared to a normal snail eye.

After the entire regeneration process – about 28 days – the snail has always expressed 1,175 genes differently, indicating that although it was completely healed outside, the researchers were still not sure how functional the new eye. Additional research is still necessary.

Accorsi and the team also developed a way to use CRISPR to modify the genes of the snails, which they tested on the Apple snail embryos. The team identified a gene called Pax6 – A gene present in humans, mice and fruit flies – as essential for eye development.

“The idea is that we slope specific genes and then see what effect it has on the animal, which can help us understand the function of different parts of the genome,” said in a press release. “If we find a set of genes that are important for eye regeneration, and these genes are also present in vertebrates, in theory, we could activate them to allow ocular regeneration in humans.”

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