Eye opening: New drops have been developed to treat age-related blindness

A type of eye drop has been developed by scientists at the University of Birmingham, UK, for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is a leading cause of blindness. Current treatment for AMD is intravitreal injections that are repeated each month for several years.

In collaborative research, published in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, a team led by Dr Felicity de Cogan (Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham) evaluated whether AMD treatment could be topically administered and offer comparable outcomes to treatment via intravitreal injections.

Using novel cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) as a drug delivery vehicle in mouse, rat and pig eyes, the team found that AMD therapies could be delivered to the posterior segment of the eye effectively and all CPP and AMD drugs were removed from the retina within a 24-hour period.

“The CPP-drug has the potential to have a significant impact on the treatment of AMD by revolutionising drug-delivery options. Efficacious self-administered drug application by eye drop would lead to a significant reduction in adverse outcomes and health care costs compared with current treatments,” said de Cogan. “The CPP-plus drug complex also has potential application to other chronic ocular diseases that require drug delivery to the posterior chamber of the eye. We believe this is going to be very important in terms of empowering of patients and reducing the cost of treatment to the NHS.”