Researchers at the University of Toronto see a future where a single injection under the eyelid could replace months of daily eye drops to treat glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness.
A team led by Molly Shoichet, a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Chemistry, used colloidal drug aggregates (CDAs) to modify the effects of a small-molecule glaucoma drug.
This new approach, described in a recent paper in the journal Advanced Materials, prolongs the drug’s effect from six hours when it is delivered via an eye drop to up to seven weeks with a single, non-invasive injection under the eyelid.
“Eye drops are the most common treatment for glaucoma, but they come with issues regarding efficacy and patient compliance, especially since the disease is more common in older adults,” says PhD alumnus Mickaël Dang, a postdoctoral fellow in Shoichet’s lab and the first author of the study. “Self-administering drops perfectly can be difficult and their effects are transient, requiring administration on a precise, interval-based schedule.
“There are also laser therapies and surgical treatments that require an injection inside the eye every few months. But these come with risks of complications such as infection, inflammation or vision loss.”
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases characterized by an increase in eye pressure, leading to damage of the optic nerve essential for vision. Currently, there are no clinical cures – only treatments that can slow the progression of the disease.