Nanomedicine For Glaucoma By NTU & SERI

The nanotechnology-based drug delivery system jointly tested by NTU and SERI allows glaucoma patients to do away with daily eye drops.

AsianScientist (Jun 5, 2014) – Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) have jointly developed a new nanomedicine that will allow glaucoma patients to do away with daily eye drops.

A leading cause of blindness in the world especially for the elderly, glaucoma is caused by high intra-ocular pressure in the eye which then leads to damage to the optic nerve. Conventionally, the first line of treatment for glaucoma patients is the daily application of eye drops which can lower the high pressure in their eyes. However, this treatment is usually required for the rest of the patients’ lives as glaucoma is a chronic disease.

Co-lead scientist Associate Professor Tina Wong, who is the head of the Ocular Therapeutics and Drug Delivery Research Group at SERI, said the new nanomedicine will benefit the elderly, as they often forget to use the daily eye drops, leading to the worsening of their conditions.

“It is estimated that at least ten percent of blindness from glaucoma is directlycaused by poor patient adherence to their prescribed medications,” says Dr. Wong, an Adjunct Associate Professor with NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering.

“Many patients find it difficult to adhere to their doctor’s prescribed regime for many reasons, such as forgetfulness, finding it too troublesome, or they lack understanding of the disease. The results in this clinical study will open up a new treatment modality for glaucoma other than taking daily eye drops, and will greatly enhance patient compliance and improve treatment outcomes,” she said.

The treatment is delivered to the front of the eye via a painless injection and will stay and release the anti-glaucoma drugs slowly over the next six months. This is made possible by the nanoliposomal drug delivery system, made up of millions of nano-sized capsules, which are thousands of times smaller than a speck of dust. The capsules contain the anti-glaucoma drug Latanoprost, which is well-known and approved worldwide for daily use in glaucoma patients.

The new therapy has successfully gone through a pilot study with six patients conducted at the Singapore National Eye Centre and has yielded positive results, having shown to be both safe and effective in the treatment of glaucoma.

“This is the first nanocarrier-drug combination that shows therapeutic effects for three to four months with a single dose. The tough challenges we faced were to make this nanocapsule stable and biocompatible, while at the same time controlling the release of the drug at the desired rate over months,” added Prof. Venkatraman, the founding director of the NTU-Northwestern Institute for Nanomedicine.

“With Singapore’s ageing population, novel nanomedicines like liposomal latanoprost are exactly what we are trying to develop at NTU’s nanomedicine institute, which will be able to deliver proven drugs in a different way,” said Prof. Venkatraman.

Liposomal latanoprost is now in the midst of being commercialised through a spin-off company, set up by Prof Venkatraman, NTU Provost Prof Freddy Boey and Assoc Prof Wong. Larger scale clinical trials are currently being planned to pave the way for eventual release to the market.

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Source: Nanyang Technological University.
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