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Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have developed a new controlled-release method of administering drugs to the eye using biodegradable polymer nanoparticles.
John Tsibouklis, reader in Polymer Science at the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences says the technique could be used to reduce the frequency of dosing. “The drug's release can be timed so it is constant, cyclical or triggered by an environmental or chemical signal.” The polymer is subsequently broken down naturally by the body.
The biodegradable polymer drug delivery method has obvious attractions in diseases such as glaucoma, where eye drops must be administered at least once per day over a long time. Not only do current formulations require frequent administration, they have low ocular bioavailability, resulting in too little of the active drug getting to the area of the eye where it is needed.
The common alternative option to eye drops, ophthalmic inserts, achieve sustained drug delivery but are difficult to insert, easy to misapply, and are expensive to manufacture.
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