𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐡𝐃 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐛. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝? 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝.
Globally, 145.2 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision impairment or blindness due to preventable or treatable causes. However, patient adherence to topical or intravitreal treatment is a leading cause of poor outcomes. To address this issue, we designed an intraocularly implantable device called the nanofluidic Vitreal System for Therapeutic Administration (nViSTA) for continuous and controlled drug release based on a nanochannel membrane that obviates the need for pumps or actuation. In vitro release analysis demonstrated that our device achieves sustained release of bimatoprost (BIM) and dexamethasone (DEX) at concentrations within clinically relevant therapeutic window. In this proof of concept study, we constructed an anatomically similar in silico human eye model to simulate DEX release from our implant and gain insight into intraocular pharmacokinetics profile. Overall, our drug-agnostic intraocular implant represents a potentially viable platform for long-term treatment of various chronic ophthalmologic diseases, including diabetic macular edema and uveitis.