Towards preventing exfoliation glaucoma by targeting and removing fibrillar aggregates associated with exfoliation syndrome
Document Type
Article
Department
Ophthalmology
Abstract
Exfoliation syndrome presents as an accumulation of insoluble fibrillar aggregates that commonly correlates with age and causes ocular complications, most notably open-angle glaucoma. Despite advances in understanding the pathogenesis and risk factors associated with exfoliation syndrome, there has been no significant progress in curative pharmacotherapy of this disease. It is thought that the ability to target the fibrillar aggregates associated with exfoliation may offer a new therapeutic approach, facilitating their direct removal from affected tissues. Phage display techniques yielded two peptides (LPSYNLHPHVPP, IPLLNPGSMQLS) that could differentiate between exfoliative and non-affected regions of the human lens capsule. These peptides were conjugated to magnetic particles using click chemistry to investigate their ability in targeting and removing exfoliation materials from the anterior human lens capsule. The behavior of the fibrillar materials upon binding to these magnetic particles was assessed using magnetic pins and rotating magnetic fields of various strengths. Ex vivo studies showed that the magnetic particle-peptide conjugates could generate enough mechanical force to remove large aggregates of exfoliation materials from the lens capsule when exposed to a low-frequency rotating magnetic field (5000 G, 20 Hz). Biocompatibility of targeting peptides with and without conjugated magnetic particles was confirmed using MTT cell toxicity assay, live/dead cell viability assay, and DNA fragmentation studies on primary cultured human trabecular meshwork cells. This is a novel, minimally invasive, therapeutic approach for the treatment of exfoliation glaucoma via the targeting and removal of exfoliation materials that could be applied to all tissues within the anterior segment of the eye.
Publication (Name of Journal)
Journal of Nanobiotechnology
Recommended Citation
Sharaf, M. G.,
Waduthanthri, K. D.,
Crichton, A.,
Damji, K. F.,
Unsworth, L. D.
(2022). Towards preventing exfoliation glaucoma by targeting and removing fibrillar aggregates associated with exfoliation syndrome. Journal of Nanobiotechnology, 20(1), 459.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_ophthalmol/6
Comments
Pagination is not provided by the author/publisher. This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.