Dithiol Compounds for Presbyopia Treatment via Redox Modulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
As people age, the ability to focus on near objects decreases due to physiological changes in the lenses, leading to conditions like presbyopia and cataract, which are age-related and share common etiologies such as lens growth, oxidative stress, and disulfide bond formation, necessitating effective agents and methods for combating these ocular diseases.
Innovation Solution
Compounds with specific structures, such as dithiol compounds and their derivatives, are employed to prevent, reduce, or reverse lens growth, oxidative damage, and disulfide bond formation, offering pharmaceutical formulations for treating presbyopia and cataract by modifying the placement of R groups and incorporating selenium to enhance redox potential.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If dithiol compounds are used to treat presbyopia, then accommodative amplitude is maintained or increased, but lens opacity may increase due to oxidative stress
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies antioxidant compounds to convert the harmful effect of oxidative stress into a beneficial effect by reducing disulfide bond formation. The antioxidants scavenge free radicals that would otherwise cause protein cross-linking and lens opacity, thereby preventing the harmful transformation while maintaining the beneficial increase in accommodative amplitude
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses antioxidant compounds as intermediaries between the dithiol compounds and the lens proteins. These antioxidants mediate the interaction by preventing direct oxidative damage to lens proteins while allowing the dithiol compounds to exert their accommodative benefits, thus resolving the contradiction between improving accommodation and preventing opacity
2Strength
If disulfide bonds form in the lens, then lens stiffness increases improving presbyopia treatment, but accommodative amplitude decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the approach by using reducing agents that break disulfide bonds rather than forming them. This reverses the conventional understanding that more disulfide bonds mean stronger lens, demonstrating that controlled reduction of disulfide bonds actually improves accommodative amplitude while maintaining appropriate lens strength through balanced redox chemistry
3Object-affected harmful factors
If selenium is incorporated to enhance redox potential, then oxidative damage is reduced, but compound complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical parameter of the compounds by incorporating selenium atoms into the molecular structure. This parameter change enhances the redox potential and antioxidant capacity of the compounds, allowing them to more effectively neutralize oxidative stress while the structural complexity increase is managed through systematic molecular design
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
These compounds effectively maintain or increase accommodative amplitude and reduce lens opacity, thereby addressing the age-related decline in focusing ability and lens stiffness, providing a therapeutic approach to manage presbyopia and cataract.
Implementation Method 1
incorporating selenium to enhance redox potential
Data Source
AI summary
Dithiol compounds and derivatives thereof are disclosed. The agents are useful for treating ocular disease, especially presbyopia and cataract.