Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have released promising results from a phase I/II clinical trial for a new enzyme-based treatment for severe dry eye.
The trial compared eye drops containing a biosynthetic form of an enzyme called DNase, which breaks up nucleic acid-based material on the surface of the eye, with eye drops without the enzyme.
"In dry eye disease, several things happen,” said principal investigator Professor Sandeep Jain. “There is an increase in the number of white blood cells called neutrophils that gather on the surface of the eye. Neutrophils release DNA which forms webs on the cornea called neutrophil extracellular traps, which cause inflammation of the ocular surface and attract additional neutrophils in a vicious cycle.”
Normally, enzymes present in tears chop up and clear DNA and other debris on the cornea, but in patients with dry eye disease, there is not enough DNase to clear the material, he explained.
Published in Translational Vision Science and Technology, the randomized, placebo-controlled trial, included 47 participants with severe dry eye disease. About half with Sjogren's syndrome and 17% with graft-versus-host disease, both associated with significant deficits in tear production. Participants were given eye drops containing either DNase or a placebo and instructed to administer one drop of the solution to each eye four times per day for eight weeks. The researchers evaluated patients' symptoms through questionnaires and measured the degree of corneal damage and amount of DNA webs and other pro-inflammatory material on the surface of the eye before and throughout the study.
