LED Contact Lenses to Treat Diabetic Retinopathy

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Dawn Kaplan

Diabetes is a long-term chronic disease with many complications, the longer a patient suffers from diabetes, the higher the risk of developing retinopathy which can gradually lead to a decline in vision and even to blindness.

A POSTECH research team led by Professor Sei Kwang Hahn and Ph.D. candidate Geon-Hui Lee (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) in collaboration with Dr. Sangbaie Shin of PHI BIOMED Co. has recently developed a smart contact lens-type wearable device to prevent diabetic retinopathy and treat it in its early stages by irradiating 120 µW far red/LED light to the retina. This technology for smart LED contact lens has attracted a great deal of attention for various ophthalmologic diseases.

The current treatment options for Diabetic retinopathy are highly invasive repeated therapeutic injections to the eyeball or thousands of small burns made with a laser to destroy capillaries near the edges of retina under anesthesia. Both procedures are considered highly painful for the patient, so not ideal.

Through the study with diabetic animal, the researchers confirmed that the diabetic retinopathy did not appear in animals that wore the smart contact lenses for 15 minutes 3 times a week for a total of 8 weeks. In contrast, the animals that did not wear the lenses showed retinopathic conditions. The safety and effectiveness of the lenses were also confirmed by the histological analysis of the cornea and retina.

“This study has demonstrated the feasibility of a lens-type wearable device for the applications not only to monitoring oxygen saturation, heart beating rate, and ophthalmologic diseases, but also to treating depression, insomnia, neuronal diseases and more,” remarked Professor Sei Kwang Han who led the study.

So the future is looking bright indeed for not only diabetics, but suffers of depression, insomnia and many other conditions.

New hope for those affected by thyroid eye disease

Posted on May 27, 2021 by Dawn Kaplan

The newly approved drug teprotumumab can offer hope to adults with thyroid eye disease, a rare and potentially blinding condition.

It’s the first treatment specifically approved for thyroid eye disease. The drug was approved Tuesday, January 11, 2020 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It will be marketed under the brand name Tepezza.

“This may be a drug that offers a new approach and a paradigm shift,” said Dr. Raymond Douglas, lead author of a study the FDA considered when making its final decision. “Currently, we use supportive therapy for people with thyroid eye disease, but their quality of life is diminished by their symptoms.

“Teprotumumab was extraordinarily effective. We hope that people with thyroid eye disease won’t have to suffer as they have in the past. With treatment, they’re not going to be blind. They’re not going to be disfigured. They can even watch their kids playing soccer when it’s windy,” Douglas explained. Without treatment, wind could be too drying to the eyes.

Thyroid eye disease causes inflammation in the back of the eye causing the eyes to bulge. The swelling may also squeeze the optic nerve, causing vision problems, said Douglas, a professor of surgery in the division of ophthalmology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Thyroid eye disease typically develops in people with an overactive thyroid gland caused by Graves’ disease. Redness, swelling and a gritty feeling in the eyes are also classic symptoms, the American Thyroid Association says. Other conditions that can occur include dry eyes or excessive tearing, double vision and sensitivity to light. The most noticeable symptom, however, is the bulging of the eyes, and it may be difficult to completely close the eyes.

Because thyroid eye disease is rare, the FDA gave this drug “orphan drug” status. This means companies are provided incentives to encourage the development of drugs for rare diseases. The medication was also given the FDA’s priority review, fast track and breakthrough therapy designations to assist the manufacturer in bringing the drug to market.

The drug’s approval was based on results of two studies that included 170 people with active thyroid disease. The drug was administered intravenously once every week for three weeks over a 21-week period. Douglas said the IV infusions take about an hour.

Teprotumumab started working after just two doses, Douglas said. After 24 weeks, 83 percent of people on the drug had a measurable reduction in eye bulge — more than 2 millimeters — versus just 10 percent of those on a placebo.

The overall response rate was 78 percent among those taking the drug compared to 7 percent of people taking a placebo. Quality of life was much higher for people taking the drug, the study found.

Douglas said treatment with the drug reversed double vision as well as surgery does.

Side effects were minimal and well-tolerated, according to Douglas. Some of the more common side effects included muscle cramps, nausea, hair loss and fatigue. The drug should not be used in pregnancy.

Learn more about thyroid eye disease from the American Thyroid Association.

To read the original article, click here (New drug may stop blindness from thyroid eye disease)

Can a New Computer Game Improve the Sight of Visually Impaired Children?

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Dawn Kaplan

A revolutionary new computer game being developed by an British team of neuroscientists and game designers could improve the sight of visually impaired children.

Academics from the University of Lincoln, UK, are working with WESC, one of the UK’s most respected specialist schools for visually impaired children, to create and evaluate a new ‘visual search rehabilitation game’.

Currently there are around 25,000 children in Britain (about two children per 1,000) with a visual impairment of such severity they require specialist education support. There are a myriad of causes of blindness in children, but cerebral visual impairment (damage to areas of the brain associated with vision, rather than damage to the eye itself) is one of the most the most common.

Researchers from Lincoln’s School of Psychology and School of Computer Science will work with staff and children from WESC – the specialist centre for visual impairment. The school and college, based in Exeter, have been providing education and care for young people with visual impairment since 1838 and is a designated High Performing Specialist School.

Jointly funded by a grant worth around £130,000 ($194,102.35 USD) for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) the two groups will apply the very latest research in visual neuroscience to the rehabilitation of childhood cerebral visual impairment and special education.

There is existing research that shows that visual search training can lead to significant recovery of sight following damage to visual centers of the brain in adults. The issue has been that the existing training programs are just too boring to use with children.

The new game, designed specifically for children, will be a fun computer based tool which will benefit children with visual field loss – holes in their vision due to damage to the brain’s visual pathways.

The game will use the same principles derived from the existing programs in use with adults suffering from visual field loss. The basic premise is that patients have to search for hard-to-find objects on a computer screen (a ‘visual search’ task), but the game will be modified to make the task more stimulating and fun for children and structured to maximize the efficiency of learning.

It is expected the new game will be suitable for rehabilitation of adults who have suffered sight loss due to stroke.