Skip to main content

Sticking these tiny needles in your eye may help fight blindness

An eye patch covered in tiny needles sounds like a torture device straight out of one of the Saw movies. In fact, it’s the invention of researchers in Singapore, who have been searching for a better way of treating eye diseases, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration.

Currently, these diseases are most commonly treated with eye drops. However, eye drops are not always sufficient to deliver large enough quantities of drugs. Nor are they particularly well-suited for delivering drug doses over an extended period of time. That’s where the somewhat squirm-inducing new treatment comes into play. It involves an eye patch studded with tiny dissolvable needles. The patch is placed onto the patient’s eye and then removed, leaving the microneedles embedded in their cornea. The microneedles consist of two layers: An outer layer which delivers an initial drug dose and an inner layer which delivers a secondary drug dose over the course of several days.

Related Videos

“This work provides a new strategy for efficient drug delivery into the eye,” Chen Peng, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, told Digital Trends. “With simple pressing of the eye patch on the eye, the detachable tiny needles can penetrate the ocular surface tissue, and serve as implanted micro-drug-reservoirs. The biphasic drug release kinetics enabled by the double-layered micro-reservoirs largely enhances the therapeutic efficacy.”

So far, the needle-studded eye patch has been tested on mice, where it demonstrated significantly more efficiency than regular eye drops. “Using corneal neovascularization as the disease model in mice, delivery of an anti-angiogenic monoclonal antibody by [the] eye patch can reduce 90 percent of neovascular area, which is much better than drug efficacy using eye drops, [which is around 15 percent,” Peng continued.

The researchers are currently optimizing the eye patch, focused predominantly on the microneedles’ composition and stiffness. This will enable better practical use. They are also in the process of searching for clinical collaborators for a medical trial, with the ultimate goal of commercializing the technology.

A paper describing the work, “Self-implantable double-layered micro-drug-reservoirs for efficient and controlled ocular drug delivery,” was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

Editors' Recommendations

NordicTrack iSelect dumbbells let you customize your workout with Alexa
A person using the NordicTrack iSelect Adjustable Dumbbells.

Ever been cramming through an at-home strength training routine, only to realize you'll again need to drop whatever weights you're using, amble over to the dumbbell rack, drop the first set back in, then pick out a new size? Yes, it's small potatoes when looking at the scope of your regime as a whole, but a minor annoyance nonetheless. Leave it to the smart fitness innovators to cast aside even the smallest of qualms.

At CES 2022, NordicTrack, a leader in residential, cutting-edge fitness, announced the all-new iSelect Adjustable Dumbbells, the first Alexa-powered strength training weights. That's right, you'll be able to adjust the weight distribution of your bells without having to physically select a new pair.

Read more
Sleep Number’s New 360 Smart Bed monitors and improves sleep health as you age
The Sleep Number New 360 Smart Bed set up in a bedroom

Today at CES 2022, Sleep Number, a leader in sleep health and research, has unveiled the latest entry in its smart bed lineup, the new 360 Smart Bed. With the assistance of A.I. and machine learning, this new smart bed has unique features that will help it monitor and improve your sleep health as you age.

Sleep is a significant part of our lives and vital to our general health. Knowing that, Sleep Number created it smart bed years ago to help track sleeping patterns. This new iteration of the smart bed has even more features to track sleep patterns, as well as predict issues and react when they arise.

Read more
French startup Circular unveils promising Oura fitness-tracking competitor
Movano Ring. Credits: Movano official.

Several smartwear products took the center stage at CES 2022. Apart from the heavy hitters such as Garmin and Skagen, a Movano ring was also unveiled, with a design that specifically has female users in mind. Finally, a French company called Circular also unveiled its first product, simply called the Circular Ring. The Circular Ring has changeable outer shells for user customization. The ring is extremely lightweight at only 4 grams. It is also water-resistant up to 5 meters. It also offers up to 22 days of built-in data storage without a Bluetooth connection. The biocompatible resin-based product will be available in different sizes.
The circular ring could give stiff competition to the Movano ring in the coming years. Movano official.
Tracking and features
A 14-day calibration period begins as soon as the user wears the ring for the first time. During this period, the ring establishes the user's baseline health parameters, which helps it to give them personalized and actionable recommendations to make healthy changes in their lives. Circular tracks multiple health metrics, including temperature, heart rate variability, energy levels, and VO2 Max. Circular has a dual PPG sensor in its ring combined with the Circular app that allows it to read heart signals and blood oxygen. It detects if the heart rate shows any signs of cardiac arrhythmia, and if the heart rhythm is steady. The data tracked is purported to be clinically accurate and can be shared with a professional for further advice. Wearing it both during the day and the night can help Circular to correlate the data using machine learning.Circular also seems to be extremely efficient while tracking sleep. It can tell a user how much time they spend in each sleep stage -- light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep, and when they are lying awake. More importantly, it also calculates how efficiently a user has slept. The app shares data on a number of important criteria to examine sleep quality, including time taken to fall asleep, sleep debt, real sleep time, disturbances while sleeping, etc. It also provides silent vibrations to users in their light sleep stage if they wish to be awakened, without disturbing their surroundings.
Price and availability 
A single charge of the ring gives it four days of battery life. A single charge from 0% to 100% can be completed in one hour. Pre-orders, which will begin soon, will run until February 27, 202. The device will have a cost of 259 euros ($293) during that time. Starting February 28, the price will jump to 289 euros ($327). Shipping and other details are expected to be announced soon by the company.

Read more