Glaucoma treatment: instead of drops, lenses with nanodiamonds
Lenses with nanodiamonds will automatically fight glaucoma
The disease leads to an increase in pressure inside the eye and – if this is not countered – to damage to its tissues. Usually, the problem is removed with eye drops, which either reduce the production of new fluid, or improve its drainage.
However, such treatment is not always fully respected by the patient himself, who is obliged to strictly follow a certain admission scheme. In addition, eye drops have side effects that also do not simplify the patient's life.
What should be done? Scientists from the University of California in Los Angeles (USA), led by Dean Ho, wondered: what if the introduction of eye drops will be carried out automatically - using a special contact lens?
It was conceived and done, for which nanodiamonds were used, having a diameter of about 5 nm and being a by–product of conventional diamond processing and mining processes. They are able to bind drugs of a wide spectrum and, after a certain, very long time, "release" them.
Contact lenses with nanodiamonds applied to them do not differ in transparency from ordinary ones, but they are noticeably stronger
(here and below are illustrations by Dean Ho).
As a medicine, the scientists chose timolol maleate, a widely used anti-glaucoma agent. Coming into contact with nanodiamond lenses, it binds to them, and when interacting with lysozyme, an enzyme of lacrimal fluid, on the contrary, it is released. In other words, as soon as the lens is put on, its nanodiamonds begin to slowly release the drug with the desired intensity.
Two white areas are pieces of a timolol gel bound with nanodiamonds.
Unlike the usual way of taking this medicine, there is no salvo application in the form of drops and removing them with tears and a blinking eyelid, because of which, on average, only 5% of the drug reaches its destination. And since there is no excess of the drug, there is no risk of its "leakage" from the eye, which is characteristic of simultaneous administration.
Interestingly, the transparency of contact lenses and their air transmission due to the application of nanodiamonds on them have not changed in any way, but the mechanical strength has noticeably increased, which hints at a longer life of the lenses.
The research report is published in the journal ACS Nano: Kim et al., Diamond Nanogel-Embedded Contact Lenses Mediate Lysozyme-Dependent Therapeutic Release.
Prepared based on the materials of the University of California, Los Angeles:
Nanodiamond-embedded contact lenses may improve glaucoma treatment.
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