Contact lenses containing vitamin E. Credit: Anuj Chauhan, Ph.D.

A new invention in the form of contact lenses against glaucoma, shows how biomedical devices should be designed

I like to think about biomedical instruments as bits of magic. Not because they cause wonders and provide instant-cures (though some do), but because the more ordinary and mundane in appearance they are, the better they become – much as in magic tricks. It’s the Law of the Ordinary ™. If you market a device for overcoming seizures, and it looks like a robotic arm-sleeve, then nobody is going to go out on the street looking like Robocop. In the same vein, the best applications and utilities are those that don’t force people to acquire new habits, like taking three pills before going to bed or (god forbid) working out. Human beings find it hard to rewire new modes of behavior into their brain, and us engineers simply have to deal with it as fact. That’s why the best inventions are also the ones you can use without even taking notice of them.

A great example of this sort of invention comes from the 239^th meeting of the American Chemical Society, in the form of contact lenses that may treat glaucoma. Glaucoma is second only to cataracts as the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in the world, and affects almost 67 million people. The mainstay treatment is eye drops that relieve the abnormal build-up of pressure inside the eye. The drug contained in the drops, however, is swept away within a few minutes by the tears, and hence doesn’t reach the targeted tissue.

The solution offered is a new extended-release delivery approach, which incorporates the drug into contact lenses. The lenses also contain vitamin E molecules that form ‘transport barriers’ and slow down the elusion of the medication from the lens into the eye. In research with laboratory animals, the novel lenses administered drugs up to 100 times longer than most commercial lenses. According to one of the developers, they could be designed for continuous wear for up to a month.

Obviously, this hasn’t gotten out to the market yet, and probably has a pending patent anyway. All the same, I like the elegant way in which the invention combines the ordinary (contact lenses) with a much needed medication. You won’t forget to put on your contact lenses, and you don’t even have to cut work short each day and ask one of your friends to hold your eyelashes while you apply eye drops. Simple, clean and ordinary. Magic and biomedicine at their best.

Source: American Chemical Society

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Do you read Science, the magazine? You really should. It’s one of the best sources for breakthroughs in research. This month they have a special section, where they tried to pick the Breakthrough of the Year. They probably had to do quite a lot of thinking, but eventually they settles on the discovery of Ardi - the missing link between our ancient ape-like ancestor and ourselves. The runner-ups, however, are just as interesting as the news about Ardi, and two in particular captured my eye: a longevity drug and the renewal of genetic engineering.

The longevity ‘drug’ is all about a substance called rapamycin, distilled from the secretions of a certain dirt-dwelling bacterium. The lifespan of mice fed with rapamycin was longer by 9 – 14%, even though the mice were 600 days old – approximately the same as a human being in his or her sixties. The puzzling aspect of the life extension is that it was not due to the elimination of old-age diseases like heart diseases and strokes. So how does rapamycin hold back aging, and can we use the material to the same effect on human beings? That would certainly be one tedious clinical trial – waiting for all the patients to die of old age, before concluding the research!

The second runner-up for the breakthrough research of the year award is the entire field of gene therapy. There’ve been some major advancements in the field this year in genetic engineering of human beings. In one research, a genetic blindness was partially cured by injecting a virus containing the enzyme needed for the sensing of light. In another, X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ADL) – a brain disorder in young children – was halted by the genetic engineering of blood cells in two 7-yeard old boys. The engineered blood cells migrated to the brain and supplied the neuron bundles with the protein they were missing. Last but not least, the results came in this year from a trial held for the past eight years for the treatment of SCID (severe combined immunodefficiency) in ten children. Out of the ten, eight were cured of the disorder without any serious side effects. These news are especially reassuring in light of the fact that the previous treatment for the related disorder X-SCID caused leukemia in five infants out of the nineteen cured by it. This time – no cancer. Now that’s good news!

I wonder when (and if) a biomed company will pick up the glove and start doing a serious research on genetic engineering for providing the cure for some of the more common disorders, like sickle-cell anemia. As always - the future is going to be very interesting.

The source from Science

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Those of us dealing in the field of biomed are probably tired of hearing people ask about genetic engineering, and when-oh-when will we be able to cure all the illnesses of the world with it. While genetic engineering does have plenty of potential for treatment of genetic disorders, most of the scientific research in the field screeched to a halt eight years ago, when certain genetically engineered viruses were found to raise the probability of cancer in treated children. And when a field of research is left wide open, someone will usually leap into it.

In the research published today in The Lancet, the authors report of a phase I clinical trial, using gene therapy to cure Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) in children and adults. LCA is a rare inherited eye disease, usually characterized by the abnormal development of photoreceptors in the eye. The research team applied a vector – an adeno-virus carrying the normal version of one of the genes that is mutated in some forms of LCA. Each of the participants in the trial was given a single shot in one of his eyes, containing different concentrations of the viruses.

The results were spectacular: the new genes in the cells could now produce the proteins needed to make light receptors work in their retinas. Walking along a dimly lit, simulated street route, the children were able to negotiate barriers they bumped into before the surgery. Another child, who since birth, could only see light and shadows, stared into his father’s face and said he could see the color of his eyes. Later they played soccer together.

Obviously, there is still plenty of work that needs to be done to ensure the safety of gene therapy treatments. All the same, this is a powerful testimony to the promise this field holds.

The Original Article in The Lancet

Press Release by Penn Medicine

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