Glaucoma Drug Discovery Service

Creative Biolabs is a leading ophthalmic research service provider in the world. Our excellent scientists provide the most professional solutions and one-stop glaucoma research services to ensure the progress of your research.

Overview of Glaucoma

Glaucoma is one of the main causes of blindness, and its prevalence is increasing year by year. Glaucoma is a group of chronic eye diseases induced by elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). Elevated IOP can lead to damage to the optic nerve, which severely affects the communication between the retina and the brain, eventually resulting in vision loss. Most people with glaucoma have no obvious symptoms until they begin to lose their sight. Multiple factors are closely linked to glaucoma. In addition to race and family history, other factors such as age, high intraocular fluid pressure and reduced corneal thickness can all contribute to glaucoma.

Fig.1 Normal and glaucoma affected eyes. (Balakrishnan, 2017)

Therapeutic Approaches

Reduction of IOP is an effective method for glaucoma therapy. Three classic approaches to lowering IOP include drugs, laser therapy, and surgery.

• Medical therapies

In general, medication is the first choice for glaucoma management. Many drugs are used to reduce IOP, such as hypertonic agents, prostaglandin analogs, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, adrenergic agonists, beta-blockers, and cholinergic agonists. These drugs either increase the flow of fluid from the eye or decrease the production of fluid from the eye. Moreover, drug delivery systems under development have the potential to improve patient compliance, improve drug effectiveness, and ultimately preserve vision in glaucoma patients.

• Laser therapies

It is difficult for drugs to reduce IOP to a specific level in all patients, therefore, laser therapy, especially trabeculoplasty, plays a crucial role in glaucoma.

• Surgical therapies

Surgery is required when medication and laser therapy alone cannot effectively control IOP. Trabeculectomy is the most commonly used incisional surgical procedure to lower IOP. Notably, glaucoma drainage implants have attracted a lot of attention in recent years. Recently, a new type of surgery has emerged - minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), which aims to fill the gap between drugs and more invasive procedures such as trabeculectomy or GDI.

Animal Models of Glaucoma

Despite the enormous effort in the field of glaucoma, its pathophysiology is not fully understood. Animal models have greatly advanced the understanding of glaucoma pathology and progression and have proven to be promising tools for the discovery of therapeutic drug targets. Animal models of many different species have been used in this disease. These models include large animals such as monkeys, dogs, cats and pigs as well as small animals, such as rodents. These models may be useful for testing responses to drugs. Furthermore, genetic models developed to address specific hypotheses may provide valuable information on the pathophysiology of glaucoma, leading to the discovery of new therapeutic targets.

Mechanism of Action (MoA) Studies of Pathophysiology

The underlying pathology of glaucoma resides in a wide range of interrelated phenomena leading to optic atrophy, insufficient optic nerve microcirculation and alterations in peripheral glial due to IOP and non-IOP dependent mechanism. In addition to the mechanistic hypothesis of optic nerve injury, various other mechanisms have been involved in glaucoma, including glutamate excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, reperfusion injury, and abnormal immunity.

Services for Glaucoma Research

• In Vitro Services
• In Vivo Services
• Ex Vivo Services
• Discovery Services
• Development Services

Equipped with a first-class technology platform and dedicated team, Creative Biolabs is dedicated to assisting our customers with the most satisfactory glaucoma research-related services. If you are interested in exploring the mechanism of glaucoma, please feel free to contact us for more details.

Reference

1. Balakrishnan, U. NDC-IVM: An automatic segmentation of optic disc and cup region from medical images for glaucoma detection. Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences. 2018, 10(3): 1750007.