A common South American snail may help unlock therapies to restore vision in humans, according to a study published in Nature Communications on Aug. 6.
Golden apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata), often sold in pet shops as aquarium cleaners, are also one of the world’s most invasive species. That resilience intrigued Alice Accorsi, now a developmental biologist at the University of California, Davis. Her research revealed the snails can regrow an entire functional eye within months.
What makes this finding particularly exciting is that apple snails possess camera-like eyes structurally similar to human eyes. When Accorsi and colleagues removed a snail’s eye, it grew back in less than a month, though it took about three months to reconnect to the brain.
Using CRISPR/Cas9, Accorsi disabled key eye-development genes, including PAX6, which both snails and humans require to form eyes. Snails without PAX6 failed to develop eyes, underscoring the gene’s critical role.
Experts say the discovery does not mean human eye regeneration is imminent. Still, understanding the genetic “switches” that enable snails to rebuild eyes may one day aid therapies for conditions such as macular degeneration. To Henry Klassen, an ophthalmologist at UC Irvine, just knowing that it is possible to regenerate eyes is “like a beacon of light.”