Daylight-Mediated, Passive, and Sustained Release of the Glaucoma Drug Timolol from a Contact Lens.

ABSTRACT: Timolol, a potent inhibitor of β-adrenergic receptors (βARs), is a first-line drug for decreasing the intraocular pressure (IOP) of patients with glaucoma. Timolol is administered using 0.5% eye-drop solutions at >3 × 10⁷ times the inhibitory concentration (k _i) for βARs. This high dose is wasteful and triggers off-target effects that increase medication noncompliance. Here, we introduce contact lenses that release timolol to the eye throughout the day during passive exposures to natural daylight at a more therapeutically relevant concentration (>3000 k _i). Timolol is coupled to the polymer of the contact lens via a photocleavable caged cross-linker and is released exclusively to the surrounding fluid after the 400-430 nm mediated cleavage of

SUBMITTER: Mu C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6311683 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature