oma treatment owing to its natural hypotensive properties.
To close the session, Mario Crespo Moral (University of Valladolid) continued with the melatonin theme in detailing his research elucidating the specific receptors and respective mechanisms that enable melatonin to induce a regenerative effect in the cornea using an ex vivo porcine model.
What was fascinating about this session was how it captured the diversity of approaches utilised in the ocular biology field. The importance of model selection was apparent as several existing therapies, such as anti-VEGF, are only partially effective in certain disease phenotypes; a limitation stemming from the models employed in their initial development. Human/pig/mouse/zebrafish, in vitro/in vivo/ex vivo/in silico; models within the ocular biology field are rapidly evolving, and the approaches on display in this session indicate, in certain cases, that the requisite for human tissue in order for effective research and development of therapeutics to be conducted could be a thing of the past.
After the lunch break/poster viewing we moved along the drug discovery pipeline from the theme of discovery to delivery as we examined the different innovative approaches being developed against specific pathologies.
Without a doubt, some of the greatest physiological barriers faced by pharmacologists are those located in the eye. Whilst topical treatment is the most convenient and by far the favoured means of delivery (the alternative involves frequent ocular exposure to sharp needles…), delivery is ultimately impeded by various naturally-occurring static and dynamic barriers, and efflux pumps, meaning any amount that happens to reach the area of interest is often not maintained at effective therapeutic doses for very long. This session aimed to cover the advanced research being conducted by some of the attendees in the area of method development for ocular therapeutic drug delivery systems.
Dr. Isabel Rodriguez Amado (International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory) got us underway detailing her work identifying naturally-occurring candidate molecules for functionalising drug-loaded nanoparticles to overcome the mucosal layer protecting the eye increasing latency and improving drug-delivery.
Dr. Laurence Fitzhenry (Waterford Institute of Technology) continued in this vein detailing his work on improving delivery of corticosteroids for dry-eye remedy. Employing a spectrum of innovative strategies, Dr. Fitzhenry demonstrated an impressive increased efficacy up to 50% for his formulations using ex vivo models as compared to a leading market competitor.
Prof. Rocio Herrero Vanrell (University Complutense Madrid) took us from the front of the eye to the back as she detailed how improvements in drug delivery strategies, such as biodegradable microspheres, have reduced the frequency of intraocular injections necessary for the treatment of a number of pathologies.
In a call-back to the first talk, Dr. Alison Reynolds (University College Dublin) spoke about her own experiences using the zebrafish model of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Reynolds described how this model, along with other in vitro and ex vivo assays, were used in unison to screen small molecule libraries in order to identify novel anti-angiogenic compounds against the aforementioned disease.
Carlos Carpena (International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory) took us back to the issue of dry-eye but instead of looking at topical treatments, Carlos detailed his work on drug delivery via contact lenses. His in vivo work integrating dinucleotides into the matrix of the lenses effectively reduced dry-eye comparative to existing treatments presenting a novel platform for future therapeutic delivery.
Sergio Esteban-Pérez (University Complutense Madrid) closed the session discussing gene therapy strategies and his development of a hydrogel-based transfection agent for retinal pathologies. Sergio detailed the important aspects to consider when designing a topical agent and demonstrated effective GFP delivery and expression in vitro u