Retinal Detachment Treatment using Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles

MARIO J. SARAVIA; R.D. ZYSLER; E. LIMA JR.; M.L. MOJICA PISCIOTTI; E. DE BIASI; ALEJANDRO BERRA; P. GURMAN; ORLANDO AUCIELLO

Rodas

Congreso; XI International Conference on Nanostructured Materials NANO2012; 2012

International NANO

Retina detachment is a pathological condition of high impact in the health of society worldwide, since 1 in 10,000 people suffers this condition every year. This statics indicate that 1 in 300 people can suffer this condition in their lifetime.Current treatments based on the use a silicone belt implant attached to the external eye sclera, such that the implant produces an indentation in the area of the retina detachment facilitating the occlusion. Complementarily, the treatment includes the extracting of the vitreous inside the eye, which produced traction on the retina, and inserting bubbles, such as silicone oil or perfluorocarbon, replacing the vitreous.However, the use of bubbles for treatment of retina detachment produces collateral effects, which can lead to blindness, thus they are used only temporarily. The gaseous and oil bubbles work via pushing the retina upwards, once they are inserted inside the vitreous. Therefore, in cases when the retina needs to be pushed downwards, the patient needs to be in an uncomfortable upside-down position for several days, resulting in serious life stile problems, lost of working days and frequently side-effects in the skeletal frame. Thus, the statistics show that the treatment of the inferior retina detachment is not successful in about 50% of the cases because the patient does not follow the medical guidelines.The new treatment developed by us involves the insertion of superparamagnetic nanoparticles (SPMNPs), 10-20 nm in diameter, inside the eye which are attracted to the retina by a magnetic field generated by a small magnet, such that the nanoparticles push the retina back in place against the inner wall of the eye for laser or other treatment for final retina attachment.Is this talk will show a summary of the state of the art regarding this disease and will be described test results on animals (rabitt) with the proposed method using magnetic nanoparticles. Magnetic tamponade with SPMNP shows to be a safe and an effective treatment for retinal detachment at a preliminary preclinical phase in animal model.