Ultrasound treatment increased the entry of topical riboflavin into the corneal stroma despite the presence of a previously intact epithelial barrier. This approach may offer a means of achieving clinically useful concentrations of riboflavin within the cornea with minimum epithelial damage, thereby improving the risk profile of corneal cross-linking procedures.
Current administration of ranibizumab and other therapeutic macromolecules to the vitreous and retina carries ocular risks, and a high patient treatment burden, and compliance barriers that can lead to suboptimal treatment. Here we introduce a device that produces sustained release of ranibizumab in the vitreous cavity over the course of several months. Composed of twin nanoporous polymer thin films surrounding a ranibizumab reservoir, these devices provide release of ranibizumab over 16 weeks in vitro and 12 weeks in vivo, without exhausting the initial drug payload. Following implantation in vivo, devices were well tolerated and showed no sign of immune response. This platform presents a potential solution to the challenge of delivering protein therapeutics to the vitreous and retina for sustained periods of time.
Background
Experimental studies have shown that the standard dose of R or R+UVA as solo treatment are not able to exterminate Acanthamoeba cysts or even trophozoites. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the application of R+UVA can enhance the cysticidal effects of cationic antiseptic agents in vitro.
Methods
The log of either polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) or chlorhexidine minimal cysticidal concentration (MCC) in solutions containing riboflavin (concentrations 0.1 %; 0.05% and 0.025 %) plus either Acanthamoeba castellanii cysts or Acanthamoeba polyphaga cysts was determined and compared in groups treated with UVA 30 mW/cm2 for 30 min and in control groups (with no exposure to UVA). A permutation test was used to determine the P-value associated with treatment.
Results
Regardless of the riboflavin concentration and UVA treatment condition, no trophozoites were seen in plates where the cysts were previously exposed to cationic antiseptic agents concentrations ≥ 200 µg/mL for Acanthamoeba castellanii samples and ≥ 100 µg/mL for Acanthamoeba polyphaga samples. There was no statistical evidence that R+UVA treatment was associated with MCC (P = 0.82).
Conclusion
R+UVA in doses up to 10 times higher than recommended for corneal crosslinking does not enhance the cysticidal effect of either polyhexamethylene biguanide or chlorhexidine in vitro.
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