研究目的

One of the major challenges faced nowadays by pharmacology is drug delivery to the posterior chamber of the eye. The reason for this fact is the existence of different static and dynamic barriers that hinder the release of drugs to the retina. The aim of this paper is to model mathematically drug delivery from two such devices: intravitreal and transscleral implants. Two particular aspects are addressed: the quantitative and qualitative behavior of drug concentration in the vitreous and the retina, and the influence of blood barriers leakage, that occurs in most retinal pathologies.

研究成果

The mathematical model presented in this paper provides a quantitative assessment of drug delivery to the posterior segment of the eye through intravitreal and transscleral routes. The model confirms that higher concentrations are achieved with the intravitreal route during the first month, but the transscleral route may offer longer residence times. The model also shows that the efficacy of drug delivery is affected by the breakdown of the blood-retinal barriers, with different impacts depending on the route of administration. The numerical results are in agreement with available experimental data, suggesting that computational modeling can be a valuable tool in the design of drug delivery systems.

研究不足

The technical and application constraints of the experiments, as well as potential areas for optimization, include the difficulty in measuring some parameters in biological systems, the differences between in vitro and in vivo measurements, and the limitations of animal models in predicting human responses.