Brimonidine-LAPONITE® intravitreal formulation has an ocular hypotensive and neuroprotective effect throughout 6 months of follow-up in a glaucoma animal model

Abstract

Intravitreal administration is widely used in ophthalmological practice to maintain therapeutic drug levels near the neuroretina and because drug delivery systems are necessary to avoid reinjections and sight-threatening side effects....

Monitoring New Long-Lasting Intravitreal Formulation for Glaucoma with Vitreous Images Using Optical Coherence Tomography

“…In previous OCT-based studies by this group, BRI/LAP IF was visualised in the vitreous cavity as hyperreflective aggregates [9]. Expanding on this finding, this study uses OCT to analyse changes in the hyperreflectivity signal from the BRI/LAP IF in the vitreous humour in rat eyes over a 24-week period.…”

“…OCT images of the vitreoretinal interface and drug level data were obtained from the experiments carried out in a previous interventional study conducted by the authors [9] (CC BY 4.0 license). In that study, chronic glaucoma was bilaterally induced by biweekly injections of hypertonic solution into the episcleral veins, according to the well-established Morrison model [20], which led to episcleral vein sclerosis and therefore ocular hypertension (OHT).…”

“…5 Li 0.3 )O 20 (OH) 4 ] −0.7 is a biocompatible and biodegradable clay used in biomedicine [6]. Its safety in intravitreal injection has been demonstrated in animal studies [7][8][9]. Laponite ® forms a transparent gel when dispersed in an aqueous medium.…”

“…It is able to interact with other molecules, acting as a carrier and releasing the drug in a controlled manner [10]. In this regard, our research group recently demonstrated that an intravitreal formulation (IF) containing brimonidine-Laponite (BRI/LAP) produced a hypotensive and neuroprotective effect in a chronic glaucoma animal model over 6 months of follow-up [9].…”

“…Expanding on this finding, this study uses OCT to analyse changes in the hyperreflectivity signal from the BRI/LAP IF in the vitreous humour in rat eyes over a 24-week period. This paper describes a monitoring marker for the IF, correlates the OCT vitreous signal to drug levels and discusses the therapeutic effect of BRI/LAP IF [9]. It proposes serial OCT as a more affordable and simpler method for monitoring BRI/LAP IF in vivo in animal research.…”