ISLAMABAD: Eating broccoli is a key to good eyesight and curbing loss of vision, a new study claims.

The green vegetable contains a compound called indole-3-carbinol (I3C).

During tests, researchers have found a highly potent concentration of the property could be used to treat age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss.

To reap the benefits, one would have to eat ‘an unreasonable amount of broccoli’, the team at Buck Institute concede – about 10 times the recommended helping. But the researchers hope their study could lead to the discovery of related molecules to develop targeted treatment for sight-loss.

‘Eat your way to good eyes’: a study claims broccoli contains a key compound that activates a detoxifying receptor protein in the retina. That receptor protein is crucial to preventing age-related maculur degeneration

It is the latest piece of good press for broccoli: recent studies have also touted the vegetable as preventative treatment for lymphoma, metastatic cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer.

In eyes, I3C activates AhR, a receptor protein which drives chemical detoxification in the retina.

AhR declines with age, but it is crucial for keeping eyes clear and healthy.

Previous studies show that AhR-deficient mice develop a condition which looks extremely similar to AMD.

Buck faculty and lead author Arvind Ramanathan, PhD, decided to try boosting AhR using broccoli’s I3C.

So he did a virtual search on a publicly-available database of millions of compounds to find ones with the same properties. His team finds 2AI has the same chemical makeup as I3C, but it is ten times more potent and will bind to AhR with more strength.

Age-related maculur degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision-loss.

“2AI prevented cell death in the retinas of mice that were exposed to light stress,” said Buck faculty and co-senior author Deepak Lamba, MBBS, PhD, who is developing stem-cell based therapies for degenerative eye diseases.

“Our next step is to study the functional outcomes of treatment with 2AI, something I am eager to do because environmental stress is the major contributor to age-related vision loss.”

The study’s results also suggest people should eat foods rich in omega-7 palmitoleic acid, such as nuts, fish, dairy and vegetable oils.

Injecting palmitoleic acid into mice had protective effects on their retinal cells, said Buck.