Ophthalmic drug delivery systems for the treatment of retinal diseases: basic research to clinical applications.

The ARVO 2009 Summer Eye Research Conference (SERC 2009) on Ophthalmic Drug Delivery Systems was held July 31 and August 1, 2009, at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. The conference provided an opportunity to gather a diverse group of more than 200 experts from both academic ophthalmology and the ophthalmic pharmaceutical industry, including laboratory researchers and clinicians, to discuss recent advances in delivery systems that convey ocular drugs to the posterior segment and how these systems might be successfully used in commercial products. The two-day meeting comprised the following nine sessions: (1) eye anatomy and ocular barriers to drug transport, (2) the vitreous humor in drug delivery, (3) intravitreal drug delivery, (4) transscleral drug delivery for retinal diseases, (5) preclinical benchmarks for retinal drug therapy, (6) animal models for evaluating drug delivery systems, (7) topical therapy for retinal diseases, (8) clinical trials, and (9) new data from abstracts. This meeting was co-sponsored by the Association in Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and the NIH to expand and continue ongoing collaborative interchange and synergic endeavors that were addressed at an earlier conference, held May 4 and 5, 2007, and sponsored by the Pfizer Ophthalmics Research Institute Conference. SERC 2009 was organized by Cheryl L. Rowe-Rendleman, PhD (Omar Consulting Group, LLC), Michael R. Robinson, MD (Allergan Inc.), and Henry F. Edelhauser, PhD (Emory University). Edelhauser and Paul A. Sieving, MD, PhD, started off the meeting with introductory comments. Edelhauser began by briefly discussing the history of basic science research involving ophthalmic drug delivery. He touched on the difficulty in finding a flawless technique to deliver drugs targeting diseases that directly affect the retina and vitreous humor, owing to the anatomic barriers and physiologic clearance mechanisms of the blood–neural barriers (BNBs). The BNBs comprise the blood–retinal barrier (BRB) posteriorly and the blood–aqueous barrier (BAB) anteriorly (Fig. 1). He also mentioned the importance of the transcellular and paracellular transport pathways across or between epithelial or endothelial BRBs (Fig. 2). Edelhauser described the purpose of SERC 2009, designed as a forum in which researchers and clinicians could have an open dialog about their work, during and between meeting sessions, all in the service of advancing the field of ophthalmology. Sieving, director of the National Eye Institute (NEI), outlined the major ophthalmic blinding diseases in the United States and their pathophysiologies, pointing out their economic costs to society. In conclusion, he noted that, many times, the most crucial step in successfully translating promising drugs from the bench to the bedside is identifying the best drug delivery route. Given the emphasis on translational science and the nonsynchronized arrangement of lectures and posters, this summary of SERC 2009 presents the major topics of the meeting by theme, not necessarily in the order of their original presentation. Each lecture has been included in the material for the pertinent area of study (see meeting agenda in the SupplemenFrom the Department of Ophthalmology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; Omar Consulting Group, Princeton Junction, New Jersey; Allergan Inc., Irvine, California; the Doheny Eye Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California; Pfizer, La Jolla, California; the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland; MacuSight, Union City, California; the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California-Irvine Medical School, Irvine, California; the Department of Ophthalmology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina; the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado-Denver, Aurora, Colorado; Taligen Therapeutics, Boston, Massachusetts; the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Cell Biology and Functional Genomics Laboratory, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; the Department of Clinical Sciences, North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Raleigh, North Carolina; Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; and the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Present affiliation: John Moran Eye Center, University of Utah Health Science Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. Supported by NIH Core Grant 5P30EY006360-23 (HFE, HEG, TWO), NIH Grant SR24 EY017045 (HFE, HEG, UBK), and NIH Grant R24 EY017404 (GSH); the Alcon Research Institute (GSH); and an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (TWO). Submitted for publication February 16, 2009; revised March 27 and April 29, 2010; accepted April 30, 2010. Disclosure: H.F. Edelhauser, Alcon (C); C.L. Rowe-Rendleman, Omar Consulting (E), Taligen Therapeutics (C); M.R. Robinson, Allergan (E); D.G. Dawson, None; G.J. Chader, None; H.E. Grossniklaus, None; K.D. Rittenhouse, Pfizer (E); C.G. Wilson, None; D.A. Weber, MacuSight (E); B.D. Kuppermann, Allergan (F, C), Alimera (F), Genentech (F, C), NeoVista (F), Novagali (F), Optherion (F), Renegeneron (F), Thrombogenics (F); Braun (C), CoMentis (C), Fovea (C), Glaukos (C), Novartis (C), Ophthotech (C), Pfizer (C), ScyFix (C), Surmodics (C), TargeGen (C), VitreoRetinal Technologies (C); K.G. Csaky, Ophthotech (I), Potentia (I); Allergan (C), Genentech (C), GlaxoSmithKline (C), Heidelberg Engineering (C), Novartis (C); T.W. Olsen, None; U.B. Kompella, Allergan (F, C); V.M. Holers, Taligen Therapeutics (I, E, P); G.S. Hageman, Optherion (I); B.C. Gilger, None; P.A. Campochiaro, Alcon (F), Alimera (F), CoMentis (F), TargeGen (F), Genentech (F, C), GlaxoSmithKline (C), Regeneron (C); S.M. Whitcup, Allergan (E); W.T. Wong, None Corresponding author: Henry F. Edelhauser, Department of Ophthalmology, Emory University Eye Center, 1365B Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322; [email protected]. Research Opportunities