Nano-formulations: Recent Trends for Ocular Bioavailability Enhancement

Abstract

Eye is a critical part of the body that is readily available and with damage having direct effects on the life of an individual. Delivery of ocular drugs always remain challenging for healthcare professionals and scientists all over the world due to the challenges that dynamic opthalamic environment provides. These challenges involves different barriers like corneal epithelium, corneal stroma, sclera and other bio-membranes (static barriers), choroidal or conjunctival blood flow, lymphatic clearance, tear turnover (dynamic barriers) and efflux pumps/enzymes(metabolic barriers).Ocular diseases include various diseases affecting different parts of the eye. The eye presents comprehensive perspectives and difficulties in the distribution of medicaments, primarily due to the exceptional ability inherent in this mechanism for drugs to enter the main circulatory system and also for eye barrier limitations. Even if conventional non-invasive and invasive treatments like eye drops, injectable preparations and implantable devices are available but these treatments either have bioavailability issues or serious adverse eye effects. Additionally, the new concept of nanoscience and nano-technology gives new a pathway for treating ocular disease. Different active molecules were engineered to communicate with nano-carriers to pass these eye barriers and interact closely with unique specific eye tissues. This study highlights the latest advances in nano-formulations for ophthalmic diagnosis and provides discussions in the mainstream of opthalamic diseases about the role of nano-formulations in nearby future.
 Keywords: ocular diseases, nano-technology, static barrier, dynamic barrier, nano-carriers, bioavailability.