Light-activated drug-loaded liposomes show potential for minimally invasive glaucoma treatment

More than 4 million people in the United States have glaucoma. Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can damage the optic nerve and lead to vision loss. It is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide, and while there is currently no cure, there are ways to prevent vision loss through early detection and treatment.

However, the two main treatment options are inefficient and have drawbacks. Medicated eye drops are non-invasive, but they are not absorbed to be fully effective. Repeated injections into the eye can cause infection and inflammation, not to mention patient discomfort.

Binghamton University researchers are investigating several new, less invasive glaucoma treatments. In a study recently published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Assistant Professor Qianbin Wang and Dorcas Matuwana, Ph.D. student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, used near-infrared light to investigate the inside of the eye. We shared our research results on drug-carrying liposomes that can be activated with.

BME Assistant Professor Siyuan Rao also contributed to the research. Dr. Hong Eunji ’23; Dr. Hwang Size ’24; and PhD students Xinxin Xu, Geunho Jang, and Ruobi Xiao.

“The first problem we discovered is that most pharmacological compounds are hydrophobic, meaning they have low water solubility,” Wang said. “The second problem is using thermal effects to trigger release. How can we do that without affecting patient comfort or having side effects? ”

Liposomes are small, spherical, artificial vesicles with gold nanorods embedded in the fat surface that can deliver drugs and other molecules to specific sites in the body. The gold is heated with specific near-infrared wavelengths, which ruptures the membrane and releases the desired drug. This drug is mixed with cyclodextrin to help absorption into the eye.

Binghamton researchers are testing liposomes to treat glaucomatous neurodegeneration in mice and believe it is a better alternative to current treatments.

“We call this ‘minimally invasive’ because it is a one-time injection that is effective enough to induce the reduction in intraocular pressure needed to maintain glaucoma,” Matswana said. .

“For our system, it’s a direct injection. We inject it once and use near-infrared light to deliver the drug. We don’t have to go back and inject it into the eye every so often, which is very invasive.”

Wang and Matswana came to Binghamton last year from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Wang joined the Watson faculty and moved his neurodynamics lab to the Department of Black Professionals.

“Working with Dr. Wang has been great,” Matwana said. “He always wants the best for you. In this publication, he is featured as an up-and-coming researcher. We students are constantly improving to get the best results for him. I am thinking of doing so.”

Wang and his neurodynamics lab are already studying improvements to this liposome technology and hope to explore other options, including genetic engineering.

“Currently, there is no comprehensive treatment for glaucoma,” he says. “We are trying to contribute to this field to see if we can find better ways to treat glaucoma in the future.”