Near-Infrared Light Activated Lipid-Based Drug Delivery Systems for the Treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Millions of people suffer from Macular Degeneration. It is a common eye disease that requires monthly injections directly into the eye, otherwise you will go blind. These injections are highly invasive, costly and not patient friendly. This thesis describes the development of a formulation to improve the current treatment. Specifically, nanoparticles made from biocompatible phospholipids were designed to be light responsive. Light can then be used to control when the drug within the nanoparticles gets released. Consequently, the monthly dose of drug can be delivered by the light-responsive formulation, which will be more cost effective, efficient and patient friendly.