Abstract
Purpose:
Due to short residence time of eye drops, drug bioavailability to the eye surface is low, particularly for poorly soluble and poorly permeable drugs, necessitating frequent dosing in treating dry eye and glaucoma. Following intravitreal injections, target specific delivery is currently not feasible for macromolecule and small molecule drugs useful in treating wet age-related macular degeneration and other back of the eye diseases. To address these unmet needs our objective is to develop novel nanoparticle based technologies for topical and intraocular drug and gene delivery.
Methods:
Small nanoparticles technologies capable of drug encapsulation and surface modification with hydrophilic cell recognizing components (functionalized nanoparticles) were designed to enhance mucus penetration as well as epithelial surface recognition and uptake. These technologies licensed by EyeTrans are under development for ocular drug delivery and therapy. The nanoparticle technologies utilize a drug carrier, a ligand on the particle surface to recognize cell surface, and other polymers to enhance delivery or stabilize the particle.
Results:
This presentation will describe nanoparticle preparation and evidence to date indicating that surface functionalization enhances ocular surface tissue uptake as well as retinal pigment epithelial cell uptake of nanoparticles in ex vivo/in vitro studies. Further, it will describe evidence indicating that dosing with biodegradable functionalized nanoparticles enhances drug delivery to the tissues of the eye in an animal model.
Conclusions:
Nanoparticle and drug delivery can be enhanced by using particle surface features that allow tissue recognition and uptake.