Hydrogel implant for the treatment of retinoblastoma
Dr. Jakub Širc and his colleagues are continuing to develop a hydrogel implant for the local treatment of retinoblastoma, the most common intraocular cancer in children. Their study on the effect of cryotherapy on the concentration of a drug delivered by a hydrogel implant to a tumor-affected eye was published in the journal Pharmaceutics.
The very idea of transporting a drug to the eye using a two-layer implant came from a discussion about four years ago, and about one year ago researchers began preparing cryotherapy experiments. A new study published in the journal Pharmaceutics describes the effect of so-called cryotherapy, which reduces the leaching of the drug from the eye by local freezing of the bloodstream. "We wanted to develop an implant that would release the chemotherapeutic directly into the affected eye, without compromising its integrity. As a result, it would be possible to achieve a substantially higher drug concentration in the eye with a much lower total dose and thus fewer of the side effects that accompany the current treatment. There would also be no risk of the tumor spreading to the surrounding organism, " explains Dr. Jakub Širc from the Department of Polymer Networks and Gels and the head of the Clean Room Laboratory (BIOCEV).
"This research would not be possible without oncologists and ophthalmologists from the 2nd Faculty of Medicin at Motol University Hospital. The experiments on model living organisms and subsequent evaluation of histological specimens take place at the Department of Histology and Embryology, 2nd Faculty of Medicine. Pharmacological data are processed by colleagues in Pharmacology from the 1st Faculty of Medicine, "says Dr. Jakub Širc.
