VItamin E in Contact Lenses Help Prescription Drug Treat Glaucoma

Filed in archive Did you know , Drugs, Vaccines and Therapeutics on January 30, 2010

Photo Credit: Anuj Chauhan, Ph.D.

Glaucoma is an eye disease wherein the optic nerve is damaged, leading to progressive, irreversible loss of vision. It is often, but not always, associated with increased pressure of the fluid in the eye.

Aside from surgery, management of glaucoma due to intraocular pressure may be treated with prescription drugs, usually eye drops containing medications that help reduce the fluid build up in the eye. In a presentation at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), scientists described use of vitamin E to develop contact lenses that may help deliver more medication for glaucoma and perhaps other diseases to the eye.

By incorporating vitamin E into contact lenses, researchers report that glaucoma medicine can be retained in the eye almost 100 times longer than possible with current commercial lenses.

The invisible clusters, or aggregates, of vitamin E molecules form what Chauhan describes as "transport barriers." that slow down the elusion of the glaucoma medication from the lens into the eye. The drug released from the lens into the eye stays in the tears far longer than the 2-5 minutes with eye drops, leading to more effective therapy.