I-Corps: Thermally-Responsive Hydrogels for Ocular Drug Delivery

I-Corps：用于眼部药物输送的热响应水凝胶

• 批准号: 1713762
• 负责人: Mark Thompson
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1713762&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Thermally; Responsive; Hydrogels; Ocular

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to ensure patients with glaucoma are compliant with their prescribed treatment. Compliance with a medication regimen is defined as the extent to which patients take medications as prescribed by their health care providers. Glaucoma patients require lifelong treatment and a strict commitment to administer eye drops daily, which is especially challenging for elderly patients. The successful application of eye drops requires coordination, manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and good vision, which result in fewer than 50 % of patients administering their eye drops as prescribed. Ophthalmic pharmaceuticals (eye drops) represent the most widely used treatment for glaucoma with more than 30 million prescriptions filled in the United States each year. This project has the potential to significantly reduce the number of patients who lose their vision due to glaucoma, dramatically improving the prognosis of those who are afflicted with this disease.This I-Corps project is based upon the development of a drug delivery platform to guarantee patients with chronic diseases are and continue to be complaint. Chronic diseases are especially sensitive to compliance issues due to the necessity of the patient to commit to a lifetime of treatment. This will be accomplished through the use of a proprietary drug eluting, thermally-responsive polymer that is liquid at room temperature and solidifies when it heats to body temperature. A solution of the polymer loaded with a therapeutic agent will be inserted into the tear duct where it will solidify, forming a solid, liquid-permeable plug. The plug conforms perfectly to the shape of the patient?s unique anatomy due to the liquid-to-solid phase transition that occurs after insertion. Once inserted, the therapeutic agent is continuously released from the plug, maintaining drug efficacy over an extended period, eliminating the need for the application of daily eye drops and ensuring patient compliance.

该I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是确保青光眼患者依从其处方治疗。对药物治疗方案的依从性定义为患者按照其医疗保健提供者的处方服用药物的程度。青光眼患者需要终身治疗，并严格承诺每天滴眼液，这对老年患者尤其具有挑战性。 滴眼液的成功应用需要协调性、手的灵巧性、手眼协调性和良好的视力，这导致少于50%的患者按处方施用他们的滴眼液。眼科药物（滴眼液）代表了青光眼最广泛使用的治疗方法，每年在美国有超过3000万张处方。该项目有可能显著减少因青光眼而失去视力的患者数量，大大改善患有这种疾病的患者的预后。这个I-Corps项目是基于开发一个药物输送平台，以保证慢性疾病患者并继续投诉。慢性病对依从性问题特别敏感，因为患者必须承诺终生治疗。这将通过使用专有的药物洗脱、热响应聚合物来实现，该聚合物在室温下为液体，当加热到体温时固化。载有治疗剂的聚合物溶液将被插入泪管中，在那里它将固化，形成固体的液体可渗透的塞子。塞子完全符合患者的形状？由于插入后发生的液-固相变，因此具有独特的解剖结构。一旦插入，治疗剂就从塞中持续释放，在较长时间内保持药物功效，消除了每日滴眼液的需要并确保患者依从性。