Improving ophthalmic drug delivery by novel formulations: peptidic hydrogels and nanoparticles

“NanOptima的使命是通过改善API的输送来提高眼科药物的有效性和安全性。随着人口的老龄化，越来越多的人需要治疗威胁视力的眼部疾病。“需要干预或治疗的视力丧失或失明的终生风险估计为：近 ** 五分之一的人永久性视力丧失或失明 **;超过三分之一的人有任何视力丧失或失明。英国有超过200万人患有严重的视力丧失，足以对他们的日常生活产生重大影响。281亿英镑是2013年英国成年人视力丧失的成本。这包括估计每年30亿英镑的直接医疗费用””（RNIB，2017）。目前的治疗方法要么具有重大风险，要么无效。滴眼液是青光眼和炎症最常见的药物输送方式，但由于90%的滴眼液在眨眼时被冲走而失去效果，并且有30%的不依从率，这可能导致失明。NanOptima正在开发先进的柔软、透明的凝胶，以使药物更长时间地保留在眼表面，以及纳米颗粒，以增加药物渗透到眼睛中。眼后部附近的疾病，特别是黄斑变性和糖尿病并发症（两种主要的致盲原因，影响英国57万人），必须通过注射治疗，这是昂贵的，有风险的，这对病人来说是非常不愉快的。NanOptima将使用我们的新型凝胶技术来创建可以通过非常细的针头注射的储库，并一次提供数月的治疗，以便使目前的注射方案变得不那么频繁和侵入性。我们还将探索纳米技术滴眼液是否可以延长注射间隔。NanOptima、PeptigelDesign Technologies和Tecrea是英国三家小型研究公司，它们将相互补充，以改善眼疾患者的体验，并建立英国治疗眼疾的药物科学基础。我们的工作将与阿尔斯特大学领先的学术和临床眼科专家密切合作，并有资深的行业顾问。"

"NanOptima has a mission to improve efficacy and safety of ophthalmic medications by improving delivery of APIs.As populations grow older, more and more people need treatment for sight-threatening eye conditions. ""The lifetime risk, of sight loss or blindness requiring intervention or treatment, is estimated to be: nearly **1 in 5 people for permanent sight loss or blindness**; and over 1 in 3 people for any sight loss or blindness. More than two million people in the UK live with sight loss that is severe enough to have a significant impact on their daily lives. £28.1 billion was the cost to the UK of sight loss in the adult population in 2013\. This includes a direct healthcare cost estimated to be £3 billion each year"" (RNIB, 2017).Current treatment methods either carry significant risk, or do not work effectively. Eye drops are the most common way of delivering medications for glaucoma and inflammation, but lose effectiveness because \>90% of the drops are washed away upon blinking, and there is a 30% non-compliance rate, which can lead to blindness. NanOptima is developing advanced soft, transparent gels to retain medicines on the eye surface for longer, and nanoparticles to increase penetration of medications into the eye.Conditions near the back of the eye, especially macular degeneration and the complications of diabetes (two of the leading causes of blindness, impacting 570,000 people in the UK), must be treated with injections, which are expensive, risky, and very unpleasant for patients. NanOptima will use our novel gel technology to create depots that can be injected via a very fine needle, and deliver treatments for months at a time, so that current injection regimes can be made less frequent and invasive. We will also explore whether nanotechnology eye drops can extend the intervals between injections. NanOptima, PeptigelDesign Technologies, and Tecrea, are three small UK research companies joining their complementary forces to improve the experiences of patients with eye problems, and to build the UK science base in pharmaceuticals for treating eye diseases. Our work will be in close collaboration with leading academic and clinical ophthalmic experts at Ulster University, with senior industry advisors."