Ocular administration of the drug is primarily associated with the need to treat ophthalmic diseases and is not regarded as a means for gaining systemic drug action. Major classes of drugs used are miotics, mydriatics/cyclopegics, anti-inflammatory, antiinfectives, surgical adjutants and diagnostics, which are all meant for local therapy. Systemic action by using eye as a portal is generally av...

Blindness is a major health concern worldwide that has a powerful impact on afflicted individuals and their families, and is associated with enormous socio-economical consequences. The Middle East is heavily impacted by blindness, and the problem there is augmented by an increasing incidence of diabetes in the population. An appropriate drug/gene delivery system that can sustain and deliver the...

A pharmacokinetic model of ocular drug delivery has been developed for describing the elimination and distribution of ocular drugs in the eye. The model, based on Fick's second law of diffusion, assumes a modified cylindrical eye with three pathways for drug transport across the surface of the eye: the anterior aqueous chamber, the posterior aqueous chamber and the retina/choroids/scleral membr...

Efficient ocular drug delivery remains a challenge for pharmaceutical scientists. Most ocular diseases are treated by topical drug application in the form of solutions, suspensions, ointment and other drug delivery devices like inserts, implants, gelling systems, etc. These conventional and novel dosage forms suffer from the problems of poor ocular bioavailability, because of various anatomical...

Ocular drug delivery is limited both by patient acceptability and by the limited time that the dosage form is retained within the precorneal region. The timely gelation and retention of in situ-gelling ophthalmic formulations would be fundamental to improve the efficacy of drugs. The aim of this investigation was to develop ocular drug delivery system with simplicity in installation for patient...

This report describes the efficacy of a novel mucoadhesive polymer, the tamarind seed polysaccharide, as a delivery system for the ocular administration of hydrophilic and hydrophobic antibiotics. Healthy rabbits were subjected to repeated ocular instillations with either conventional gentamicin or ofloxacin or these agents viscosified with the tamarind seed polysaccharide. Administration of vi...

Ocular Conjunctivitis is one of the main causes of red eye syndrome. The present work focuses on the treatment of ocular conjunctivitis by using combined mechanisms: 1.Formulation of ocular inserts to provide prolonged and sustained release system of the drug. 2.Use of therapeutic agent, as ciprofloxacin hydrochloride in combination with the polymers used. The selected polymers were methylcellu...

Punctal plugs (PPs) are miniature medical implants that were initially developed for the treatment of dry eyes. Since their introduction in 1975, many PPs made from different materials and designs have been developed. PPs, albeit generally successful, suffer from drawbacks such as epiphora and suppurative canaliculitis. To overcome these issues intelligent designs of PPs were proposed (e.g. Sma...

The use of silver nitrate as prophylaxis for neonatal ophthalmia was instituted in the late 1800s to prevent the devastating effects of neonatal ocular infection with Neisseria gonorrhoeae. At that time - during the preantibiotic era - many countries made such prophylaxis mandatory by law. Today, neonatal gonococcal ophthalmia is rare in Canada, but ocular prophylaxis for this condition remains...

In this work, a peptide for ocular delivery (POD) and human immunodeficiency virus transactivator were conjugated with biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PGLA)-polyethylene glycol (PEG)-nanoparticles (NPs) in an attempt to improve ocular drug bioavailability. The NPs were prepared by the solvent displacement method following two different pathways. One involved preparation of PLGA NPs...