Aim: To study the therapeutic effect of rapamycin liposome eyedrops on fungal keratitis (FK) and its effect on the expression of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1).
Methods: This study adopted the thin film dispersion method to prepare rapamycin liposomes eyedrops, as well as used the orthogonal design to analyze and study main influencing factors that affected the quality of liposomes. Totally 96 healthy Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups: normal control group (A), FK blank control group (B), FK blank liposomes control group (C), and 30 FK rapamycin liposome treatment group (D). Groups B, C, and D were first prepared as FK animal models. The corneal response was recorded in details on day 1, 3, 5, 7, and 14 after modeling. Six rats were obtained and immunohistochemistry and semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to detect the expression of MCP-1 protein and mRNA, respectively.
Results: The severity of corneal lesions in the rapamycin treatment group was reduced, and the clinical score of the slit lamp examination was lower than that of Groups B and C (P<0.01). The expression of MCP-1 in rapamycin treatment group was significantly inhibited, comparing to that of groups B and C (P<0.01).
Conclusion: Liposome is a good drug carrier for rapamycin. Rapamycin has a good therapeutic effect on FK. It can reduce FK fungal burden and significantly inhibit the expression of MCP-1 protein and mRNA.
Keywords: fungal keratitis; liposome; monocyte chemotactic protein-1; rapamycin; rats.