Engineered peptide-drug conjugate provides sustained protection of retinal ganglion cells with topical administration in rats.

ABSTRACT: Effective eye drop delivery systems for treating diseases of the posterior segment have yet to be clinically validated. Further, adherence to eye drop regimens is often problematic due to the difficulty and inconvenience of repetitive dosing. Here, we describe a strategy for topically dosing a peptide-drug conjugate to achieve effective and sustained therapeutic sunitinib concentrations to protect retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in a rat model of optic nerve injury. We combined two promising delivery technologies, namely, a hypotonic gel-forming eye drop delivery system, and an engineered melanin binding and cell-penetrating peptide that sustains intraocular drug residence time. We found that once daily topical dosing of HR97-SunitiGel provided up to 2 weeks of neuroprotection after the last

SUBMITTER: Hsueh HT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10591956 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature