Vitamin E in Contact Lenses May Help Fight Glaucoma

One basic approach to improve therapies for glaucoma is to keep eye drops used to treat the disease in contact with the eye longer than current methods permit. (Glaucoma, a form of optic nerve damage, is second only to cataracts as a cause of vision loss and blindness.) Researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville found that special contact lenses treated with vitamin E can keep glaucoma medication near the eye much longer than is presently possible. In general, within two to five minutes of putting drops in the eye, tears wash the drug away so that only about one to five percent of it reaches the targeted tissue, said Anuj Chauhan, Ph.D., the research team leader. Incorporating vitamin E into contacts creates a barrier that slows the escape of the drug. In animal studies, the vitamin E packed lenses kept the drugs in close proximity to the eyes 100 times longer than most commercial lenses, the researchers said. Dr. Chauhan noted clinical trials of the vitamin E lenses could be completed within a year or two. She presented the findings at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in March in San Francisco.

Learn more about glaucoma and vitamin E.