Do you have glaucoma? Or simply dry eyes? Nanopharmaceuticals may be the best treatment.

Thanks to a group of nano-engineers in Singapore who have created contact lenses that release controlled doses of drugs, you may be able to treat your glaucoma or other eye diseases simply by wearing their lenses.

No more eye drops? Sounds too good to be true.

Most eye medications are delivered by drops. But most of the drug quickly flows away from the eye, often draining into the nasal cavity and then entering the bloodstream.

"Eye drops are cumbersome, and they lead to drug wastage and side effects," says co-inventor, Dr. Edwin Chow at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the government-backed organization in Singapore behind the new invention.

In fact, scientists say that 95 per cent of eye drops is usually wasted.

Contact Lens for Opthalmic Drug Delivery

The IBN's Chow together with Xu Wang and Yi Yan Yang state:

Conventionally, drug delivery with contact lenses involves soaking in drug solution and trapping of drug in a cavity between two pieces of contact lenses. Such systems, however, could not effectively deliver medications over an extended period of time.

The objective of our research is to develop an ophthalmic drug delivery system through the use of novel polymeric systems. The drugs are encapsulated within a bicontinuous nanostructured polymer matrix via an in situ microemulsion polymerization process.

A sustained release of drugs has been achieved.

The IBN's new nanopharmaceutical technique involves mixing the drug with a pre-polymer liquid.

This mix is then polymerised, creating a transparent contact lens material.

If the drug is water-soluble, it will be trapped within a network of tiny inter-connected, water-filled channels in the material.

If it's water-insoluble, it will be trapped within nano-spaces in the polymer matrix, and slowly leach out into the channels. In contact with fluid on the eyeball, these channels open up and release the drug.

By varying the water content of the original mix, the team can vary the size of the channels, and so control the rate at which the drug leaks out onto the eye.

The IBN has come up with a new lens material riddled with minuscule channels through which drugs can be administered directly onto the eyeball and which allows them to control the rate at which the drugs are released.

"Glaucoma accounts for twenty-percent of blindness in Singapore and is rapidly becoming the second major cause of blindness in Asia after cataracts," the IBN said.

According to industry studies, the eye care market is undergoing exponential expansion due to population growth, ageing, widening of licensing for perscription of opthalmic drugs and novel technologies.

The market for opthalmic drugs worldwide is estimated at about $4 billion per year, growing at 10-15% annually.

Chow's novel polymeric system permeable to gases, salts, nutrients, water and other components of the tear fluid looks compelling.

"Contact lens wearers with dry eyes may also benefit from this invention as the material they have created can be modified to product self-lubricating contact lenses," the organization added.

Likewise, the delivery system can be tailored to different drugs.

"By altering the size, concentration and structure of these polymeric nano-particles, we can further control the drug delivery rates, while retaining the appropriate lens clarity," Chow said.

Retaining the appropriate lens clarity will obviously be one of the keys to the adoption of this new approach.

The next step for the IBN is to identify partners who can help them commercialize this product.

Can the Singaporean group beat a team at the University of Florida, and others who are also working on nano-engineered lenses to deliver drugs?

We'll be "looking" for them.

To learn more about the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, go to:

Congratulations to co-inventor, Dr. Edwin Pei Yong Chow, Xu Wang, Yi Yan Yang and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Sinagapore.

Inspire & Be Inspired (R).

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful and clear-view living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King