Nanomaterials drop into eye care

Eye drops could become a thing of the past thanks to a method of delivering drugs to the eye using biodegradable nanomaterials developed at the University of Portsmouth.

This new method, developed by a team of researchers led by biomaterials and drug delivery expert Dr John Tsibouklis, uses biodegradable polymer nanoparticles to administer drugs to the eye.

Tsibouklis said biodegradable polymers can be combined with drugs in such a way that the drug is released into the eye in a very careful and controlled manner. The drug would have to be placed into the eye just once.

'The drug's release can be timed so it is constant, cyclic or triggered by an environmental or chemical signal, and the drug delivering polymer can be broken down naturally by the body when it is no longer needed,' Tsibouklis said.

People with eye conditions who use eye drops regularly would benefit from the biodegradable polymer drug delivery method. Eye drops have many disadvantages, including the need to administer drops regularly and low ocular bioavailability, meaning too little of the drug is getting to areas of the eye most in need.