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A drug-dispensing contact lens
July 22, 2009Sustained-release could ease treatment of glaucoma and other conditions
Taking eye drops multiple times a day can be difficult for patients to do, and because of blinking and tearing, as little as 1 to 7 percent of the dose is actually absorbed by the eye. Now, researchers led by Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD, director of the Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery at Children's Hospital Boston, have developed special contact lenses that can gradually dispense a constant amount of medication to the eye, at adjustable rates. They describe their prototype lens in the July issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.
Although other groups have developed drug-releasing contact lenses, none have been able to achieve a constant, steady release of substantial amounts of drug; typically, a burst of drug is delivered in the first few hours, followed by rapidly dwindling amounts that are too low to be therapeutic. Kohane, collaborator Joseph Ciolino, MD, of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and colleagues at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created a two-layer contact lens with an inner drug-bearing biodegradable polymer film known as PLGA. Both PLGA and pHEMA (used for the coating) have been well studied and are already approved for ocular use by the Food and Drug Administration.
In laboratory testing, the prototype lenses dispensed ciprofloxacin (an antibiotic often used in eyedrops) for 30 days, the longest duration for which contact lenses are currently approved by the FDA; in some tests, the lenses continued releasing drug for up to 100 days. The amounts dispensed were sufficient to kill pathogens in a laboratory assay.
Kohane and Ciolino see applications in conditions such as glaucoma and dry-eye which require frequent daily eye drops. They have begun to test the lens in animals and plan to begin human testing as soon as possible. The technology recently won the Life Sciences track in MIT's 100K Entrepreneurship Competition.
Children's Hospital Boston
Kohane and Ciolino see applications in conditions such as glaucoma and dry-eye which require frequent daily eye drops. They have begun to test the lens in animals and plan to begin human testing as soon as possible. The technology recently won the Life Sciences track in MIT's 100K Entrepreneurship Competition.
Children's Hospital Boston
Contact Lenses Current Events and Contact Lenses News RSSCataract surgery helps AMD patients; steroid improves DME; online eye health forum
This month's Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy) reports on a national study that finds cataract surgery is likely to benefit patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) at all stages of the disease, on a clinical trial showing that the steroid triamcinolone may be effective in advanced diabetic macular edema (DME) patients when standard treatment fails, and on the public's use of two Academy-sponsored online eye health forums.
Sight for sore eyes
In a world-first breakthrough, University of New South Wales (UNSW) medical researchers have used stem cells cultured on a simple contact lens to restore sight to sufferers of blinding corneal disease.
'Gecko vision': Key to the multifocal contact lens of the future?
Nocturnal geckos are among the very few living creatures able to see colors at night, and scientists' discovery of series of distinct concentric zones may lead to insight into better cameras and contact lenses.
UAB Tear Research Focused on Contact Lens Risks, Benefit
Contact lenses are great for sight, but do they have an impact on general eye health? Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Optometry are working to answer that question by analyzing tears.
Violent Video Games Can Improve Vision
Video killed the radio star, the old song goes - but violent video games, a new Tel Aviv University study finds, can also improve the real-world vision of teens who play them.
Eye exercises help patients work out vision problems, UH optometrist says
You've probably been there. In a doctor's office, being advised to do what you dread - exercise. You get that feeling in your gut, acknowledging that, indeed, you should exercise but probably won't. Now imagine that the doctor is your optometrist.
Knobbly kneed ID
Forget LED thumb-pad identification devices, complex retinal laser scanning, or even computerized iris recognition, the way forward for biometric validation is a quick X-ray snapshot of a person's knees, according to a report published in the International Journal of Biometrics.
Strategy Discovered for Fighting Persistent Bacterial Infections
Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered a promising strategy for destroying the molecular scaffolding that can make Pseudomonas bacterial infections extremely difficult to treat in cystic fibrosis patients, wearers of contact lenses, and burn victims. Jerry Nick, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at National Jewish Health, and his colleagues report in the April 2009 issue of The Journal of Medical Microbiology that a long string of aspartic acid molecules disrupts the molecular bonds that hold together the structure supporting Pseudomonas biofilms.
Biofilms: Even Stickier Than Suspected
Biofilms are everywhere - in dental plaque and ear canals, on contact lenses and in water pipelines - and the bacteria that make them get more resilient with age, finds a new study in FEMS Microbiology Letters.
Contact lenses are home to pathogenic amoebae
Contact lenses increase the risk of infection with pathogenic protozoa that can cause blindness.
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