Targeted Drug Delivery to the Cornea of the Eye Via Thin-Film Slow Release Technology.

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Getting a drug to where it is needed is essential if it is to be efficient. Some drugs are effective when injected into the bloodstream or taken as tablets. For the cornea at the front of the eye, drugs can also be applied as eye drops. The problem with this, however, is that eye drops flow away from the cornea and end up under the eyelid or in the nasal passage. Thus, the drug in the eye drop is not active where it is needed. To overcome this problem we will bind drugs to thin films, which will be a bit like contact lenses. But the binding of the drug will not be tight. This means that when the film is worn like a contact lens the drug is steadily released into the cornea, exactly where it is needed. A special type of drug called a ROCK inhibitor can help damaged cells in the cornea recover. And because of this we will use a ROCK inhibitor as the drug in our new contact lens-type films, to establish how it is released into the cornea in a more targeted manner than with eye drops.