Neovascular diseases of the posterior eye like age-related macular degeneration, proliferative diabetic retinopathy or retinopathy of prematurity carry a tremendous burden for patient and health care system alike. Although intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF based therapeutics have significantly improved the visual outcome for many patients, current therapeutic options still show significant drawbacks such as the injection-related risk of contracting an infection. Due to their ability to encapsulate drugs with otherwise poor bioavailability, accumulate in areas of increased vascular permeability and control the release of active ingredients over time, nanoparticle systems have been widely researched to enhance current therapeutic strategies and expand the therapeutic arsenal. In this review, emphasis is placed both on the possibilities and drawbacks that a systemic nanoparticle-based therapy could have in the context of neovascular posterior eye diseases. Recent investigations into intravenous and intravitreal administration of nanomaterials and their potential to deliver potent drugs and genes to pathologic lesions will also be presented. Furthermore, we will focus on the exceptional anti-oxidative and anti-angiogenic properties of selected nanoscale systems that carve out new paths for the treatment of these severe posterior eye diseases.
Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration; Drug delivery; EPR effect; Gene delivery; Nanoparticles; Proliferative diabetic retinopathy; RGD peptide; Retinopathy of prematurity.
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