The Dalai Lama is analyse by a doc at The ' Eye Q ' Centre for Excellence for Glaucoma Hospital in New Delhi on November 29 , 2013 . mental image cite : STRDEL / AFP / Getty Images
Glaucomais a star cause of irreversible blindness in the macrocosm . A condition of the eye where block drainage canals leave to a buildup of pressure and loss of vision , glaucoma has no therapeutic . Treatment is limited to applying medicinallatanoprostdrops to facilitate the accompanying pressure of the disease , hopefully keep back it from shape up . But cliff program can be imprecise , and patient role often forget to apply them . So two researcher at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Boston Children ’s Hospital lately designed a impinging lens that delivers medication straight off to the heart .
Drug - dispensing contact lenses of the past tense have been ineffectual because they did not dispense the drug quickly or consistently enough to relieve symptoms . However , the researchers were able to show in a2014 studythat their lens designing successfully deliver medication continuously to the eyes of glaucomatous rabbits for one month . In their lateststudyon glaucomatous monkey , release in the medical journalOphthalmology , they were able to show not only that their lense could deliver the drug unceasingly , but that the crystalline lens palliate the ocular imperativeness because of the disease — possibly even more efficaciously than manually lend oneself drops do .
“ One of the first times I presented our inquiry , I learn some people reckon it would n’t work in a real link genus Lens due to prejudices based on previous failure , ” Daniel S. Kohane , director of the Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery at Boston Children ’s Hospital , and a professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School , tellsmental_floss .
The closed book of their success , tell Kohane ’s collaborator , Joseph B. Ciolino , an oculist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary , was “ the evolution of polymer drug rescue . ”
Kohane explains the operation using a Jell - O doctrine of analogy : cerebrate of the drug as a red powdered dyestuff and the eye as a bathtub . “ If you take the reddish powder and you throw it in a bathtub , all the water in the bathtub becomes red , ” he says . However , “ if you put the dye into Jell - O , and you throw the Jell - O cubes into the bathtub , the tub will become cherry very , very slowly . ” In the case of the contact lens of the eye , “ the drug is released easy by a combination of diffusion and debasement of the polymer film . ”
What they found when they applied it to the eyes of monkeys with glaucoma was that “ our low - dose lens was as as effective as the [ latanoprost ] drop , and in the high - acid crystalline lens , was more effective in reducing pressure than the drop curtain , ” Ciolino tellsmental_floss . “ When we first saw the information , we were ecstatic . "
Of course , Ciolino is careful not to “ overstate ” the findings , since they have yet to be proven in force in human trial , but tell , “ our findings are potentially exciting to those who are concerned in free burning drug legal transfer . ” Kohane skip to set out human trials within a year .
For the jillion of the great unwashed with glaucoma , these young lenses may offer novel hope for living with the disease .
