New therapies aim to treat dry eye-related inflammation

Boston-Two new therapies are aiming to treat dry eye disease by targeting dry eye-related inflammation.

One double-blind study from Tufts Medical Center, recently presented at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery 2014 Symposium, was conducted at eight sites in the United States and evaluated EBI-005, a novel topical interleukin (IL)-1 receptor blocker. IL-1 plays a role in the inflammatory response to dry eye disease.

The study randomized 74 patients with moderate to severe dry eye disease to EBI-005, either 5 mg/mL or 20 mg/mL, three times a day for six weeks or placebo. At six weeks, patients who received EBI-005 had a 33 percent improvement from baseline in total corneal fluorescein staining, a 36 percent improvement from baseline in total Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score, and a 46 percent improvement in eye pain.

Patients in the EBI-005 groups with baseline OSDI scores below 50 had a 39 percent improvement in total corneal fluorescein staining, a 41 percent improvement in total OSDI score, and a 61 percent improvement in eye pain. All improvements exceeded those seen with placebo.

A second study from the Tauber Eye Center in Kansas City, MO, was a phase 3 randomized placebo-controlled OPUS-2 trial on lifitegrast ophthalmic solution 5.0 percent (Shire PLC), which is designed to target T-cell-mediated chronic inflammation.

At 12 weeks, symptom improvement was robust, but improvement in actual signs of the disease, which was achieved in the phase 3 OPUS-1 trial, was not met in this trial.