Abstract
Purpose :
Infectious keratitis is a common cause of visual disability in the world. The increased incidence of drug resistant ocular pathogens has led to explore innovative approaches to combat the stromal melting. Here we describe a new riboflavin conjugate in combination with ultraviolet light A (UVA) in vivo as a novel therapy for this condition.
Methods :
The left cornea of thirty-six (n=18 female) New Zealand Albino rabbits (3-5-month-old), was inoculated with a suspension of a multidrug resistant-methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain (2 x 109CFU/ml). Corneas were randomly divided in: 1) riboflavin conjugate + UVA, 2) riboflavin + UVA, 3) moxifloxacin eyedrops and 4) no-treatment control group. Once corneal ulcer was established, clinical pictures were taken at day 0 (before treatment) and daily after treatment. Eyes were sent for microbiological/histopathological examination at 3h, 24h and 2 weeks. Corneas were assessed for endothelial cell vitality (TUNNEL test) to evaluate safety. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results :
Clinical improvement was significant with the riboflavin conjugate + UVA compared to the other groups. The difference in the CFU count between the riboflavin conjugate + UVA and other treatments was statistically significant with 0 CFU (P ≤ 0.00243). No endothelial cell damage in the rabbits’ eyes enucleated at 3h, 24h and 2 weeks after the riboflavin conjugate + UVA administration.
Conclusions :
We clinically demonstrated our novel riboflavin conjugate photoactivated by UVA is powerful in restoring corneal integrity, without compromising the corneal endothelium. Further studies are ongoing to evaluate this approach in a clinical setting.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.