A team of researchers from China have developed an eye drop gene therapy delivery system aimed at treating conditions such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
According to researchers, diabetic retinopathy and AMD develop in the back of the eye and while gene therapies can be administered to help treat these conditions, they require injections. The research team reportedly wanted to come up with a non-invasive approach and developed a gene delivery system with a peptide called penetratin and a synthetic polymer called poly(amidoamine). Testing on rats reportedly showed that the complex, when applied as an eye drop, quickly moved from the eye's surface to its rear inner lining and remained in the retina for more than eight hours, giving enough time for a model gene to be expressed.
The study was recently published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces of the American Chemical Society.
Image courtesy American Chemical Society
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Source: American Chemical Society