IIT Madras researchers identify enhanced drug delivery method for eye treatments

With the use of simulation and modelling studies, researchers analysed the efficacy of various types of treatments on the human eye.

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) researchers have demonstrated how drugs injected in the human eye can better deliver to the target region through ‘convection caused by mild laser heating’.

Laser-based retinal treatments are increasingly being used to treat diseases like retinal tears, diabetic retinopathy, macular oedema and retinal vein occlusion. (HT Photo)

With the use of simulation and modelling studies, researchers analysed the efficacy of various types of treatments on the human eye, focusing on heat and mass transfer.

Laser-based retinal treatments are increasingly being used to treat diseases like retinal tears, diabetic retinopathy, macular oedema and retinal vein occlusion. Since the retina is the region of the eye that contains blood vessels and nerves, such treatments must be performed carefully and with precision, mentioned IIT Madras.

The research was taken up nearly a decade ago by Prof Arunn Narasimhan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, who collaborated with Dr Lingam Gopal of Shankar Nethralaya and initiated biothermal research into the effects of laser irradiation on the retina for the first time in India. The team performed computer simulations and experiments to analyse different aspects of eye treatments, within the scope of bio-heat and mass transfer, informed the press release.

The current study was taken up by Prof Arunn Narasimhan, and IIT Madras graduate student Mr Shirinvas Vibuthe, who used a glass eye mimic to demonstrate how heat-induced convection reduces the time taken for drugs injected into the vitreous region to reach the targeted region in the retina.

“For engineers like us involved in medical research due to the practical and ethical difficulties involved in performing experiments on live human organs, computer simulations and mimic experiments are the only available research tools. Using glass-eye experiments and bioheat simulations to analyse invasive treatments in the human eye, we have shown that mild targeted heating can enhance drug delivery to the retina. The medical community needs to take this further and implement it in treatment of retinal diseases," said Prof Arunn Narasimhan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras.

“While with natural diffusion alone, the drug mimic took 12 hours to achieve effective concentration at the target region of the retina, heating the vitreous liquid reduced it to just 12 minutes," said Shirinvas Vibuthe, Graduate Student, IIT Madras.