Looking for breakthrough ideas for innovation challenges? Try Patsnap Eureka!

Methods and compositions for treating meibomian gland disease

a meibomian gland and composition technology, applied in the direction of drug compositions, aerosol delivery, extracellular fluid disorder, etc., can solve the problems of meibomian gland atrophy, short treatment period, and potential sight-threatening problems, so as to reduce ocular irritation, delay the effect of tear clearance and relief of symptoms

Inactive Publication Date: 2008-09-04
PFLUGFELDER STEPHEN C +2
View PDF11 Cites 0 Cited by
  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The patent is about a group of agents and methods for treating patients with meibomian gland disease, which can cause ocular irritation and delayed tear clearance. The invention focuses on reducing ocular irritation, improving tear clearance, reducing inflammation, and inhibiting the activity of certain proteins in the tear fluid. The invention uses a topical antimicrobial tetracycline or a non-antimicrobial tetracycline analogue, which can be applied to the eye or taken orally for treatment. Overall, the invention provides a useful tool for reducing eye irritation and improving the symptoms of meibomian gland disease."

Problems solved by technology

It has been reported that 15% of patients with ocular rosacea develop recurrent corneal epithelial erosions, a potentially sight-threatening problem.
Although patients with this condition usually have normal production of aqueous tears by their lacrimal glands, their meibomian glands can atrophy and this is frequently accompanied by metaplasia of the ductal epithelium of these glands.
Therefore, previous treatments of meibomian gland disease were directed only to treatment of presumed infection of the eyelids or meibomian glands, or had particular disadvantages that made such treatments of little use for long periods of time.
For example, patients with meibomian gland disease have been symptomatically treated with artificial tears, but these agents provide limited, if any, improvement.
However, steroids are not good long-term solutions because of the potential side-effects e.g., cataract and glaucoma.
Meibomian gland disease is currently not curable or reversible; therefore, patients with this condition must be treated for life.
However, one disadvantage for using antimicrobially active tetracyclines or tetracycline analogues orally in the treatment of meibomian gland disease is that a high percentage of patients are unable to tolerate oral tetracyclines for extended periods of time.
The intolerance to tetracyclines can manifest itself in gastrointestinal problems, e.g., epigastric pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, or other problems related to taking long-term oral antibiotics, such as mucosal candidiasis.
At the present time there are no available long-term treatments of meibomian gland disease.

Method used

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
View more

Image

Smart Image Click on the blue labels to locate them in the text.
Viewing Examples
Smart Image
  • Methods and compositions for treating meibomian gland disease
  • Methods and compositions for treating meibomian gland disease
  • Methods and compositions for treating meibomian gland disease

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

Identification of Increased IL-1α Concentrations in Meibomian Gland Disease Patients

[0034]In one study, tear fluid concentrations of Interleukin-1-alpha (IL-1α), Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α), and Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) in patients having ocular rosacea were compared with those concentrations in normal patients (controls).

[0035]Fourteen (14) patients with severe meibomian gland disease, facial rosacea, and symptoms of ocular irritation were examined for ocular surface disease, tear production and tear clearance rate (TCR). For meibomian gland disease assessment, meibomian glands were examined by slit lamp biomicroscopy and graded for the presence of orifice metaplasia, expressibility of meibum, and meibomian gland acinar dropout, as previously described and known from the scientific literature. Twelve (12) controls, frequency-matched for age, and fifteen (15) ideal normals were assessed using the same parameters.

[0036]Minimally stimulated tear samples (20 μl) were drawn fro...

example 2

Correlation of Gelatinise Activity with IL-1α Concentration and Tear Clearance

[0041]Tear fluorescein clearance was correlated with IL-1α concentration and 92 kD gelatinase (MMP 9) activity in the tears of patients. Thirteen patients with ocular rosacea (including 1 patient with recurrent epithelial erosion, 2 with recurrent peripheral corneal infiltrates and vascularization and 2 patients with epithelial basement membrane dystrophy) and 13 normal subjects with normal aqueous tear production and no irritation symptoms were evaluated. Tear fluorescein clearance was evaluated by measuring fluorescence in tear fluid collected from the inferior meniscus 15 minutes after instillation of 5 ml of 2% Na-fluorescein with a Cytofluor II. IL-1α was measured by ELISA using an R&D Systems kit. Gelatinase activity was evaluated by gelatin zymography, comparing tear activity to purified 92 kD gelatinase (MMP 9).

[0042]Compared to normal controls, patients with ocular rosacea had greater delay of flu...

example 3

Reduced Tear Clearance in Ocular Irritation

[0043]Reduced tear clearance is commonly found in most patients with ocular irritation irrespective of the patient's tear production. Forty (40) abnormal patients presenting with a chief complaint of ocular irritation and forty (40) asymptomatic controls of similar age distribution were used to correlate and compare a new method of measuring tear fluorescein clearance and the Schirmer 1 test with the severity of ocular irritation symptoms, presence of meibomian gland disease, corneal fluorescein staining scores, and corneal and conjunctival sensitivity. All subjects completed a symptom questionnaire, a baseline ocular examination, fluorescein clearance test (FCT) and Schirmer test.

[0044]Methods. The fluorescein clearance test (FCT) was performed by measuring the fluorescein concentration in minimally-stimulated tear samples collected from the inferior tear meniscus 15 minutes after instillation of 5 μl of 2% sodium fluorescein with a Cytofl...

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

PUM

PropertyMeasurementUnit
volumeaaaaaaaaaa
volumeaaaaaaaaaa
concentrationaaaaaaaaaa
Login to View More

Abstract

A method for treating a patient having meibomian gland disease, ocular irritation associated with delayed tear clearance, or recurrent corneal epithelial erosion, is disclosed. Preferably, the method concerns treatment of a patient with topical tetracycline, a derivative or analogue of tetracycline, or a chemically modified tetracycline (CMT). Oral administration of a CMT is also disclosed as part of the method for treating meibomian gland disease, ocular irritation associated with delayed tear clearance, or recurrent corneal epithelial erosion.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]Meibomian gland disease is the most common tear film and ocular surface disorder causing eye irritation. The incidence of the disease increases with age, and occurs in approximately 50% of patients with the skin disease, rosacea. A conservative estimate of the number of patients affected with this condition is 10 million in the United States alone. It has been reported that 15% of patients with ocular rosacea develop recurrent corneal epithelial erosions, a potentially sight-threatening problem.[0002]Common complaints of patients suffering from meibomian gland disease include blurred or filmy vision, burning or foreign body sensations in the eye, photophobia, and pain severe enough to awaken the person from sleep. Although patients with this condition usually have normal production of aqueous tears by their lacrimal glands, their meibomian glands can atrophy and this is frequently accompanied by metaplasia of the ductal epithelium of these glands. An...

Claims

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to View More

Application Information

Patent Timeline
no application Login to View More
Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): A61K31/165A61P27/02A61K9/06A61K31/65
CPCY10S514/912A61K31/65A61P27/00A61P27/02A61P31/00A61P33/00A61P7/02
Inventor PFLUGFELDER, STEPHEN C.LOKESHWAR, BALAKRISHNA L.SELZER, MARIE
Owner PFLUGFELDER STEPHEN C
Who we serve
  • R&D Engineer
  • R&D Manager
  • IP Professional
Why Patsnap Eureka
  • Industry Leading Data Capabilities
  • Powerful AI technology
  • Patent DNA Extraction
Social media
Patsnap Eureka Blog
Learn More
PatSnap group products

Browse by: Latest US Patents, China's latest patents, Technical Efficacy Thesaurus, Application Domain, Technology Topic, Popular Technical Reports.

© 2024 PatSnap. All rights reserved.Legal|Privacy policy|Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement|Sitemap|About US| Contact US: help@patsnap.com