LSU BAE Professor, Team Work to Create Eyedrop for Retinoblastoma Treatment

November 21, 2024

BATON ROUGE, LA – Retinoblastoma is a rare, malignant tumor in the retina that mostly affects children under the age of 5 and can lead to blindness or even death if not treated. Since many patients are unable to access current treatments that include chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, LSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering Assistant Professor Qi Cai and a team of LSU researchers are creating an eyedrop gel that will be more accessible to retinoblastoma patients, thanks to a $75,000 Provost Award grant.

“The mortality rate for retinoblastoma patients in lower- and middle-income countries is as high as 70%,” Cai said. “This is due to noncompliance and limited access to treatment approaches.”

Retinoblastoma affects 200-300 children in the U.S. each year and is the most common type of eye cancer in children, according to the American Cancer Society. About 75% of children with retinoblastoma have a tumor in just one eye, known as unilateral retinoblastoma, whereas 25% have it in both eyes, called bilateral retinoblastoma. More than 90% of children in the U.S. with this type of eye cancer are cured, but the prognosis is not good if the cancer spreads outside of the eye.

“If the cancer is left untreated, it can spread and fill much of the eyeball, causing loss of vision, even spread to the body causing loss of life,” Cai said.

Current treatment approaches include intravitreal chemotherapy, brachytherapy, external beam radiation, and tumor end resection via pars plana vitrectomy. There is also an eyedrop treatment that is easy for patients to use, but its delivery efficiency is low because of some barriers in the anterior segment, such as tear turnover, the blinking process, and cornea and conjunctival barriers.

Cai’s team, which includes LSU BAE Professor Cristina Sabliov, LSU BAE Associate Professor-Research Carlos Astete, and LSU School of Veterinary Medicine Professor Renee Carter, are creating an eyedrop that will break through these barriers and improve the drug delivery into the retinoblastoma with minimal invasiveness. They will use the Angiopep-2 (Ang-2) peptide in the gel, since it has been proven to effectively cross the blood-brain barrier for glioblastoma drug delivery.

“This peptide can target a tumor and interact with proteins on the tumor cell,” Cai said.

The team hypothesizes that barrier-penetrating and tumor-homing Ang-2, conjugated to anticancer drug Paclitaxel entrapped in thermosensitive gel, will improve the drug delivery into retinoblastoma with minimal invasiveness.

“The outcomes of this project will provide an effective and less invasive approach to treat retinoblastoma, which may enable at-home treatment with excellent patient compliance,” Cai said.

Cai hopes her team is able to help children all over the world with retinoblastoma, since it is most prevalent in the U.S., Mexico, India, and Africa, per the National Library of Medicine.

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Contact: Libby Haydel
Communications Manager
225-578-4840
ehaydel1@lsu.edu