Animals have been tested on a contact lens that can deliver drugs on demand.
By Carissa Wong.
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A wireless contact lens device could help treat the eye condition Glaucoma by monitoring the build-up of pressure inside the eye and automatically delivering drugs when it rises too high.
According to some estimates, about 80 million people worldwide are affected by Glaucoma, which is caused by insufficient drainage of fluid from the eye and can damage the brain's visual signals.
Drugs and eye drops are used to drain excess fluid from the eye. People may fail to stick to their treatment schedule according to Xi Xie at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China.
A prototype contact lens device can sense eye pressure and release drugs when needed. The outer layer of the lens has small copper plates in a ring around the eye that sense eye pressure and eye strain. A computer is connected to an antenna near the eye. When the lens receives a signal from the computer via the antenna, the inner layer of the lens is loaded with a pressure-lowering drug called brimonidine that can be released.
The researchers have tested their glasses in rabbits. They showed that the device could transmit the data from the eye pressure monitor to the external computer. They used a computer to send a signal to the contact lens that triggered the release of brimonidine.
The rabbits had their eye pressure decreased after 30 minutes and after 2 hours on average.
It would be a wonderful addition if this technology could be used at point-of-care settings.
Further studies are needed to assess how well the device works in humans.
Nature Communications is a journal.
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