Abstract
Each year, new glaucoma drug delivery systems are developed. Due to the chronic nature of the disease, it requires the inconvenient daily administration of medications. As a result of their elution from the eye surface and penetration to the bloodstream through undesired permeation routes, the bioavailability of active compounds is low, and systemic side effects occur. Despite numerous publications on glaucoma drug carriers of controlled drug release kinetics, only part of them consider drug permeation routes and, thus, carriers’ location, as an important factor affecting drug delivery. In this paper, we try to demonstrate the importance of the delivery proximal to glaucoma drug targets. The targeted delivery can significantly improve drug bioavailability, reduce side effects, and increase patients’ compliance compared to both commercial and scientifically developed formulations that can spread over the eye surface or stay in contact with conjunctival sac. We present a selection of glaucoma drug carriers intended to be placed on cornea or injected into the aqueous humor and that have been made by advanced materials using hi-tech forming methods, allowing for effective and convenient sustained antiglaucoma drug delivery.
Highlights
The human eye is a complex organ composed of many specialized elements of various structure and properties, combining their functions for a common goal—eyesight
We present a selection of glaucoma drug carriers intended to be placed on cornea or injected into the aqueous humor and that have been made by advanced materials using hi-tech forming methods, allowing for effective and convenient sustained antiglaucoma drug delivery
We present the most interesting novel glaucoma drug carriers with direct contact with cornea or aqueous humor able to eliminate unfavorable drug permeation routes
Summary
The human eye is a complex organ composed of many specialized elements of various structure and properties, combining their functions for a common goal—eyesight. These parts constitute a main route for ophthalmic drugs. The consequence of such duality is a debate regarding the permeability of the eye [1,2,3,4,5]. To significantly improve drug bioavailability, reduce side effects, and increase patient compliance, their action spot should be narrowed when compared to traditional topical formulations. For this purpose, a deeper understanding of transport rates across ocular tissues is crucial. A selection of the most interesting and innovative glaucoma drug carriers are presented
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