About Dry Eye Disease

What is Dry Eye Disease?

Dry eye disease (DED), also known as keratoconjunctivitis sicca, Sjogren's syndrome, keratitis sicca, dry eye syndrome (DES), dry eye, functional tear syndrome, ocular surface disease, or dry eye, is a common chronic disease that affects many people around the world. The global prevalence of DED ranges from 5% to 50% and increases linearly with age. The International Dry Eye Symposium (2007) defines dry eye as a multifactorial disorder of the tear film and ocular surface, resulting in symptoms of discomfort, visual disturbance, and tear film instability with potential damage to the ocular surface. It is associated with ocular surface inflammation and increased tear film osmolarity. Dry eye pathogenesis may be due to ocular surface stress (infection, environmental factors, endogenous stress, genetic factors, and antigens). Various treatments for this disorder aim at reducing disease symptoms and restoring a normal ophthalmic environment.

Fig. 1. Detailed mechanism of dry eyes. (Storgaard L, et al., 2021)

Pipeline Drugs and Trends in Clinical Trials

Clinically, the treatment of DED is achieved in different ways (Table 1), and many drugs for the treatment of DED are currently undergoing clinical trials (Table 2).

3.1Tab. 1. Dry eye disease treatments. (Mondal H, et al., 2023)

Tab. 2. Clinical trials of DED drugs.

Novel Drug Delivery System for DED

Conventional treatment of DED includes the use of artificial tear products, cyclosporine, corticosteroids, mucin secretagogues, antibiotics, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of treatment options for DED. (Nagai N, et al., 2022)

The available dosage forms for DED are primarily eye drops or emulsions. After application, the drug is eliminated through lymphatic flow and conjunctival blood, and only 1-5% of the administered drug can be absorbed by the target tissue, with low bioavailability and poor patient dependence. Furthermore, a portion of the delivered drug enters the systemic circulation escapes first-pass metabolism, and enters all major organs, with potential side effects. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop effective treatments for dry eye with minimal impact on physiological functions. Nanotechnology-based ocular drug delivery systems are currently the focus of important research efforts, and several nanotherapeutic drugs, such as nanoemulsions, nanosuspensions, microemulsions, liposomes, and nanomicelles, are in clinical trials, some of which have been received FDA approval as a novel treatment for DED.

One-Stop Preclinical Dry Eye Disease Studies Solutions

As an industry-leading comprehensive contract research organization (CRO), Ace Therapeutics focuses on the health of ocular diseases and improves ocular diseases by helping customers provide drug discovery and preclinical research solutions. Our support staff averages decades of experience in preclinical ophthalmology research for pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, and large CROs, who help customers around the world deal with each stage of preclinical drug development. Our one-stop solutions cover the development of ocular disease models, in vivo ocular pharmacodynamic studies, ocular tolerance and safety studies, early pilot studies, and proof-of-concept and bioanalytical levels. All of our projects are customizable and flexible, which allows us to fully understand our clients' needs and how to meet them.

At Ace Therapeutics, our team of experts is dedicated to supporting preclinical DED research. In order to promote the research and development of new anti-inflammatory treatment methods and devices for customers, our ophthalmic pharmacologists have developed a series of highly stable and highly reproducible dry eye animal models to simulate different dry eye pathogens to meet different research needs. In addition, our extensive experience in biomarker discovery can help you quickly identify and characterize potential biomarkers associated with dry eye disease, thus accelerating your lead discovery journey. Our services scope covers the whole process from lead compound discovery to the implementation of preclinical GLP projects. With decades of dry eye research experience, Ace Therapeutics has the ability to accelerate your preclinical DED research with a high standard.

References

1. Gurnani B, Kaur K, Kumar MC. Current Concepts and Future Trends in Dry Eye Syndrome - A Review of Literature. TNOA Journal of Ophthalmic Science and Research. 2021, 59(1):38-51.
2. Mondal H, Kim HJ, Mohanto N, et al. A Review on Dry Eye Disease Treatment: Recent Progress, Diagnostics, and Future Perspectives. Pharmaceutics. 2023, 15(3):990.
3. Ling J, Chan BC, Tsang MS, et al. Current Advances in Mechanisms and Treatment of Dry Eye Disease: Toward Anti-inflammatory and Immunomodulatory Therapy and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Front Med (Lausanne). 2022, 8:815075.
4. Nagai N, Otake H. Novel drug delivery systems for the management of dry eye. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2022, 191:114582.

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