119 results about "Choroid membrane" patented technology

Devices and methods are provided for access to the sub-retinal space that lies between the retina and the choroid in order to introduce therapies to the retina and more specifically to the sensory retina and RPE, particularly in the region of the macula. The devices comprise a catheter that incorporates advantageous size, flexibility and tip features to properly, accurately and atraumatically access the sub-retinal space. Ancillary devices to assist in placing catheters into the sub-retinal space are also provided. The catheter devices incorporate a lumen for delivery of therapeutic substances or devices into the eye.

Activated C3 (C3a) and its receptor (C3aR) and activated C5 (C5a) and its receptor (C5aR) have been shown to induce vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in vitro and in vivo. Compositions and methods for inhibiting C3a, C3aR, C5a and C5aR for the treatment and / or prevention of neovascular disease are provided. Also provided are Novel therapeutic targets and diagnostic markers for choroidal neovascularization.

The invention relates to sustained release implants and to methods for treating eyes, particularly the eyes of mammals having eye disorders or diseases. By using the implants and methods described herein, the delivery of the one or more bioactive agents can be localized at a desired treatment site, particularly the choroid and the retina.

Disclosed are methods for the use of therapeutic polypeptide-encoding polynucleotides in the creation of transformed host cells and transgenic animals is disclosed. In particular, the use of recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vector compositions comprising polynucleotide sequences that express one or more mammalian PEDF or anti-angiogenesis polypeptides is described. In particular, the invention provides gene therapy methods for the prevention, long-term treatment and / or amelioration of symptoms of a variety of conditions and disorders in a mammalian eye, including, for example blindness, loss of vision, retinal degeneration, macular degeneration, and related disorders resulting from retinal or choroidal neovascularization in affected individuals.

The invention discloses a choroid layer automatic partitioning method based on a high-definition frequency domain optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT) image, and belongs to the technical field of image processing. According to the method, input HD-OCT images are subjected to denoising preprocessing first, a high-reflectance zone near a retina nerve fiber layer is removed by locating an internal limiting membrane, then the lower boundary of a retinochrome epithelial layer, namely the upper boundary of a choroid layer is located through high-reflectance information, finally candidate CSI boundary points obtained through the image features of the lower boundary of the choroid layer are connected through a graph searching method, and the CSI boundary of choroid membranes is obtained. Test results show that choroid layer partitioning accuracy is high and is equal to that of manual partitioning results, the method can replace the complex time-consuming work that a clinician measures the thickness of the choroid membranes manually, and significance in improving of working efficiency of a doctor is achieved.

Disclosed herein are compositions and methods for treating ocular diseases, inter alia, diabetic macular edema, age-related macular degeneration (wet form), choroidal neovascularization, diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion (central or branch), ocular trauma, surgery induced edema, surgery induced neovascularization, cystoid macular edema, ocular ischemia, uveitis, and the like. These diseases or conditions are characterized by changes in the ocular vasculature whether progressive or non-progressive, whether a result of an acute disease or condition, or a chronic disease or condition.

Formulations and methods useful to reduce ocular neovascularization (new blood vessels in the cornea, retina, conjunctiva, and / or choroid) are disclosed. According to the invention the formulation will include tetracycline or a derivative thereof including chemically modified tetracyclines (CMT) which inhibit matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity at a substantially neutral pH in a pharmaceutically acceptable form suitable for delivery to the eye in an amount and for a duration sufficient to reduce ocular neovascularization. According to the invention the formulations are preferably in pharmaceutically acceptable formulations for topical ocular application, ocular injection, or ocular implantation, and may be contained in liposomes or slow release capsules.

Intravitreal administration of a JNK-inhibitory peptide less than 150 amino acids in length, containing at least one D-amino acid, and having (a) a JNK-inhibitory sequence of at least any of SEQ ID NO: 1 and SEQ ID NO: 2, and (b) a transport sequence of at least any of SEQ ID NO: 3 and SEQ ID NO: 4 suppressed spermidine-induced retinal pigment epithelial damage, tunicamycin-induced photoreceptor cell damage, and laser-induced choroidal neovascularization. Thus, the JNK-inhibitory peptide of the present invention is useful for prophylaxis or therapy of a retinal disease. By the use of this JNK-inhibitory peptide, a drug and a method are provided which are capable of preventing or treating a retinal disease even by topical administration to the eye, and use of the JKN-inhibitory peptide for manufacturing the drug is also provided.

Devices and methods are provided for access to the sub-retinal space that lies between the retina and the choroid in order to introduce therapies to the retina and more specifically to the sensory retina and RPE, particularly in the region of the macula. The devices comprise a catheter that incorporates advantageous size, flexibility and tip features to properly, accurately and atraumatically access the sub-retinal space. Ancillary devices to assist in placing catheters into the sub-retinal space are also provided. The catheter devices incorporate a lumen for delivery of therapeutic substances or devices into the eye.

The present invention provides methods and compositions for treating and / or preventing age related macular degeneration and other conditions involving macular degeneration, ocular neovascularization, or ocular inflammation. The methods comprise administering a composition comprising a compound that is an antagonist of a G protein coupled receptor, e.g., the C5a receptor, to a subject in need of treatment or prevention of age-related macular degeneration or another condition involving macular degeneration or ocular neovascularization. The invention provides compositions comprising a compound that is an antagonist of a G protein coupled receptor linked either directly or indirectly to a moiety that binds to a component present on or at the surface of cell or noncellular molecular entity, e.g., a component present in the eye of a subject at risk of or suffering from age related macular degeneration or a related condition or choroidal neovascularization.

The invention discloses a method and system for segmenting choroidal neovascularization from a fundus OCT image in the technical field of medical image processing. The objective of the invention is tosolve the technical problems of low segmentation accuracy and unclear lesion boundary regions in a choroidal neovascularization segmentation result in the prior art. The method comprises the steps ofcollecting a fundus OCT image containing choroidal neovascularization lesions; constructing a convolutional neural network based on a differential amplification module; training and testing the constructed convolutional neural network based on the differential amplification module; and segmenting choroidal neovascularization from the fundus OCT image by using the trained network. According to theinvention, the VGG16 is used as a coding part of the U-Net network; a differential amplification module is connected after the pooling operation of each convolution block; according to the method, abinary cross entropy loss function and a Dice loss function are used as loss functions to restrain the whole network, so that the segmentation accuracy is high, and a lesion boundary region is clearerand more accurate.

Described herein are liquid formulations which deliver a variety of therapeutic agents, including but not limited to rapamycin, to a subject for an extended period of time; liquid formulations which form a non-dispersed mass when placed in an aqueous medium; nondispersed mass-forming liquid formulations which form a gel or gel-like substance in an aqueous medium; liquid formulations, comprising a therapeutic agent and polymers; and methods for delivering therapeutic agents to a subject for an extended period of time using the liquid formulations. The liquid formulation may be placed in an aqueous medium of a subject, including via intraocular or periocular administration, or placement proximate to a site of a disease or condition to be treated in a subject. A method may be used to administer rapamycin to treat or prevent angiogenesis, choroidal neovascularization, or age-related macular degeneration, or wet age- related macular degeneration.

The invention discloses a frequency domain OCT based whole-eye imaging and parameter measuring method and system. The whole-eye imaging and parameter measuring system includes a ranging system and a target system; through the conversion of anterior segment-posterior segment measurement, a lens can move to change the distances to the front of the eyes; and the measuring system can measure the boundary distance of each segment in anterior segments and posterior segments, and includes the measurement calculating on ocular axial lengths and anterior and posterior mean cornea and the identificationcalculating on central corneal thicknesses, lens thicknesses, anterior chamber depths and total thicknesses of the anterior segments even on the thicknesses of retina and choroid. Compared with traditional instruments which can only perform imaging on the anterior segments or the posterior segments, the system can combine the imaging of the anterior segments and the posterior segments at a lowercost, so that the imaging and parameter measuring of whole eyes can be realized, and therefore, the measuring system and method have great advantages on the investigation of ophthalmic diseases and the location of eye diseases.

The invention discloses a choroid three-dimensional blood vessel imaging and quantitative analysis method and device based on an optical coherence tomography system. Reverse compensation is performedon a deep choroid blood vessel and a matrix, which are obtained by OCT, through a backward scattering attenuation signal based on the idea of OCT backward scattering signal reverse compensation, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the choroid blood vessel is improved; after an enhanced OCT choroid image signal is acquired, a segmentation method based on deep learning is further adopted to perform intelligent segmentation on boundaries between a choroid and a retina epithelium and between the choroid and a sclera, and the defects that a traditional algorithm consumes time and is low in accuracy inthree-dimensional choroid boundary segmentation are overcome; and, on the basis of boundary segmentation, an improved self-adaptive threshold segmentation method is further adopted to automatically separate three-dimensional choroidal vessels from non-vascular tissues, and global and regional quantitative indexes capable of representing choroidal ischemia are calculated according to the distribution and proportion of the vessels in the image in a three-dimensional body space.

This invention relates to the expression method of adeno-associated virus-mediated gene in retinal cells. This invention can significantly improve the transfer efficiency and gene expression level of adeno-associated virus-mediated gene in retinal cells by using a combination of different types of adeno-associated virus, and has no toxic or side effect. Experimental results show that at a certain dosage range, replication-competent adenovirus and replication-defective adenovirus can significantly accelerate AAV2-mediated gene expression, and no cell lesion is observed. This invention can be used for gene treatment of ocular fundus diseases, such as retinosis, maculopathy, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis, choroidal neovascularization, optic nerve degeneration and damage.

The invention provides an application of puerarin gel eye drop in preparation of drugs for treating ischemic ocular fundus diseases. The eye drop is prepared from puerarin, EDTA, sodium metabisulfite, borneol, benzalkonium bromide, poloxamer 407, sodium hyaluronate, sodium citrate, citric acid and injection water, an HPLC-UV method is adopted, intraocular pharmacokinetics of rabbits proves that the absorbed doses of 1.2% puerarin gel eye drop in retina and choroid are respectively larger than 70% and 62% in common puerarin eye drop; converted according to specific gravity of aqueous fluid and vitreous body, intraocular puerarin contents satisfy the relation that choroid> retina>aqueous fluid > vitreous body, which indicates that an enough absorbed dose of the puerarin can reach ocular fundus. Observation finds that average drug contents (ng / g) of the 1.2% puerarin gel eye drop on time points of a 1-6 hour puerarin time-concentration curve of rabbit retina and choroid are not lower than contents (ng / g) measured when rabbits effectively induce reinforced ocular fundus blood flow velocity in retina hemodynamics measurement, so that the fact that the puerarin gel eye drop can be used as intravenous puerarin for treating ischemic ocular fundus diseases can be proved.

Unregulated angiogenesis is associated with a variety of pathological conditions. Tumor growth and metastasis is dependent on the development of new blood vessels. The development of new blood vessels in the eye, or ocular neovascularization, has been implicated in a variety of serious ocular diseases. For instance, choroidal neovascularization is linked to age-related macular degeneration, while retinal neovascularization is linked to diabetic retinopathy. The present invention is based on the discovery of a peptide sequence, C16Y, which inhibits ocular neovascularization and tumor growth in vivo. C16Y is a scrambled version of the C16 peptide sequence from the y1 chain of laminin-1. Unlike C16, which is an angiogenic stimulator, C16Y has been shown to inhibit angiogenesis. The present invention discloses methods of treating ocular neovascularization and cancer using both full-length and truncated versions of the C16Y.

The present invention provides novel pharmaceutical agents and methods for treating or preventing diseases caused by neovascularization in human choroid (neovascular maculopathy). The present invention provides pharmaceutical compositions and vaccines for treating and / or preventing diseases caused by neovascularization in human choroid (neovascular maculopathy), comprising at least one type each of a peptide comprising an amino acid sequence derived from a VEGFR-1 protein and having an activity of inducing cytotoxic T cells, and a peptide comprising an amino acid sequence derived from a VEGFR-2 protein and having an activity of inducing cytotoxic T cells.

Provided are methods and compositions for treating ocular conditions characterized by the presence of unwanted choroidal neovasculature, for example, neovascular age-related macular degeneration. The selectivity and sensitivity of, for example, a photodynamic therapy (PDT)-based approach can be enhanced by combining the PDT with an anti-FasL factor, for example, an anti-FasL neutralizing antibody.

The invention relates to an OCT image-based Alzheimer's disease risk prediction method and system and a medium. The OCT image-based Alzheimer's disease risk prediction method comprises the following steps that a fundus OCT image is input into a trained retina segmentation model to obtain a segmentation mask of a retina region; a fundus OCT image is input into a trained choroid segmentation model to obtain a segmentation mask of a choroid region; the position of a macular central recess is detected; the distance between the upper and lower boundaries of the retina segmentation mask and the choroid segmentation mask at the macular central recess is calculated to obtain the retina thickness and the choroid thickness at the corresponding positions; and the omentum thickness, the choroid thickness and the age and gender information of the person taking the fundus OCT image are input into an optimized multi-index Logistic regression model to obtain the disease risk level of the Alzheimer's disease. The retina and choroid segmentation and thickness measurement are carried out by adopting a Unet network structure, the accuracy is high, a multi-factor disease risk prediction model is constructed, and a more reliable result for predicting the Alzheimer's disease patient can be provided.

Objects of the present invention are to study on the synthesis of a novel pyrrole derivative having a ureido group and an aminocarbonyl group as substituents or a salt thereof, to find a pharmacological effect of the derivative or a salt thereof, and to find a medicinal agent which has a prophylactic and / or therapeutic effect on a retinal disease or the like through oral administration. A compound represented by the general formula (1) or a salt thereof has an inhibitory activity against the production of interleukin-6 and / or an inhibitory effect on choroidal neovascularization, and is therefore useful as a prophylactic and / or therapeutic agent for a disease associated with interleukin-6, an ocular inflammatory disease and / or a retinal disease. In the formula, the ring A represents a benzene ring or the like; R1 represents a halogen atom, a hydrogen atom, a lower alkyl group or the like; R2 represents a halogen atom, a lower alkyl group which may have a substituent, a lower alkenyl group, a lower alkynyl group which may have a substituent, a lower cycloalkyl group, an aryl group, a hydroxy group, a lower alkoxy group which may have a substituent or the like; and n represents 0, 1, 2, 3 or the like.

Disclosed are devices, systems and methods for non-invasive neuromodulation system for treating inherited or acquired retinal, choroidal and optic nerve disorders caused by acute or chronic dysregulated reduced ocular blood flow (OBF) and / or energy failure by up regulation of trigemino-vascular system (TVS), trigeminal autonomic brain reflexes (TABRs) and pancreatic trigemino-vagal reflex (TVR) through stimulation of ophthalmic nerve (V1), more specifically but not limited to SP, and CGRP containing unmyelinated C nerve fibers. The invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to the methods for enhancing SP and CGRP expression in neurovascular tissue of the retina and choroid. The invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to SP / CGRP mediated pathways, including those involved in vasodilatation, augmentation of OBF, RPE proliferation, prevention of apoptosis, suppressing neuroinflammation, promoting migration and differentiation of vascular endothelial cells as well as mobilization of endogenous mesenchymal stem cells (EMSCs) from the bone marrow to the circulation to accelerate tissue repair. The site of stimulation of V1 nerve includes but not limited to; nasal vestibule nasal bridge, forehead, and upper eyelids. Additionally or alternatively, the subject's sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is down regulated by sympatholytic agents specifically antioxidants. The subject's TVS and autonomic nervous system (ANS) are modulated in a manner that is effective to treat the subject for retinal, choroidal and / or optic nerve disorders. In some embodiments, the devices are handheld, portable with nose supported, having one or more intra-nasal or extra-nasal application heads. The signal can include vibration, chemical, ultrasonic, optical, electrical, hybrid electro-optical or combination of two or more of these types of stimuli. The invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to a method for decreasing vascular resistance, enhancing vasodilatation in ophthalmic artery and its branches by the release of Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP),substance P and CGRP thereof increasing OBF to the retina, choroid and optic nerve in subject's with acute or chronic dysregulated, reduced OBF. The invention, in some embodiments thereof, is also related to the methods for improving delivery of oxygen, glucose, vitamin A, humoral mediators, growth factors, stem cells and pharmacological agents to the targeted tissues of the retina, choroid and optic nerve. The invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to the methods for improving pancreatic insulin secretion, thereof to enhance glucose uptake by PRs and other retinal cells. Additionally or alternatively, the invention relates to restoration of transduction of signaling in cone PRs by ONS induced glutamate release. The methods of the invention, in some embodiments thereof, include priming of the retina choroid and optic nerve thereof to enhance the efficacy of cell transplantation therapy. The methods of the invention, in some embodiments thereof, also include identifying a subject prone to or suffering from a disease or condition associated with reduced OBF. Methods of the invention, in some embodiments thereof, may also include monitoring the subject for prophylactic treatment where the patients are at pre-clinical stage of the disease. The OBF of subjects who had received neuromodulation treatment may also be monitored for re-treatment.The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to a method and / or device for treatment of dysregulated reduced blood (e.g. reduced ocular blood flow) and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to methods and / or devices for treatment retinal, choroidal and optic nerve disorders. Optionally, treatment may include application of an effective amount of ONS ophthalmic nerve stimulation alone and / or in combination with pen-ocular administration of substance Neuropeptides / Platelet Rich Plasma (N / PRP) and / or ascorbic acid as a sympatholytic agent

The present invention describes an improved photodynamic treatment to treat subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV).

Described herein are liquid rapamycin formulations. Described herein are methods of treating or preventing diseases or conditions, such as choroidal neovascularization, wet AMD and dry AMD, and preventing transition of dry AMD to wet AMD, using the liquid rapamycin formulations described herein.

The invention relates to an artificial transcription factor comprising a polydactyl zinc finger protein targeting specifically a receptor gene promoter fused to an inhibitory or activatory protein domain, a nuclear localization sequence, and a protein transduction domain. In particular examples these receptor gene promoters regulate the expression of the endothelin receptor A, the endothelin receptor B, the Toll-like receptor 4 or the high-affinity IgE receptor. Artificial transcription factors directed to the endothelin A or B receptors are useful in the treatment of diseases modulated by endothelin, such as cardiovascular diseases, and, in particular, eye diseases, e.g. retinal vein occlusion, retinal artery occlusion, macular edema, optic neuropathy, central serous chorioretinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy, and the like. Artificial transcription factors directed to the Toll-like receptor 4 or the IgE receptor are useful for the treatment of autoimmune disorders, and the like, and allergic disorders, respectively.