Self-Assembling Elastin-Like Hydrogels for Timolol Delivery: Development of an Ophthalmic Formulation Against Glaucoma

This work focuses on improving the effectiveness of current therapies against glaucoma by incorporating self-assembled polymers into the ophthalmic formulation. To that end, we first studied the influence of the dispersing medium on the mechanical performance of self-assembling elastin-like (EL) and...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Fernández Colino, Alicia, Quinteros, Daniela Alejandra, Allemandi, Daniel Alberto, Girotti, Alessandra, Palma, Santiago Daniel, Arias, Sergio Javier
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2017
Country:Argentina
Institution:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repository:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/65740
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/65740
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Elastin-Like Recombinamers
Glaucoma
Ophthalmic Formulation
Silk-Elastin-Like Recombinamers
Thermo-Gelling
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/3.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/3
Description
Summary:This work focuses on improving the effectiveness of current therapies against glaucoma by incorporating self-assembled polymers into the ophthalmic formulation. To that end, we first studied the influence of the dispersing medium on the mechanical performance of self-assembling elastin-like (EL) and silk-elastin-like (SEL) hydrogels by conducting rheological tests. These polymers were subsequently incorporated into the antiglaucoma formulation, which contains timolol maleate (TM) as active ingredient, and in vivo tests, namely adhesion tests and intraocular pressure measurements (IOP), were performed in New Zealand rabbits. An enhanced reduction in IOP due to the presence of the polymers was observed. Moreover, differences in the effectiveness between both EL- and SEL-hydrogels, which can be explained on the basis of the different rheological properties displayed by these two systems, were also encountered. The results point to the potential of this system as a basis for the development of an ophthalmic formulation against glaucoma.