Eyeworld

APR 2018

EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.

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19 EW NEWS & OPINION April 2018 cells, and it was tolerated as a topical drug in the animal model as well. "It looks like it has good bio- availability on the cornea itself," Dr. Shukla said. Current drugs for herpetic indications can come with adverse effects, such as other ocular disor- ders like glaucoma or nephrotoxici- ty. Dr. Shukla said he doesn't think the antiviral drugs themselves are causing glaucoma, but their ineffi- cacy against the infectious agent is leading to these other conditions. "Active virus replication is caus- ing nerve damage that could lead to adverse effects like glaucoma," Dr. Shukla said. "Since efficacy is higher [with BX795], I think we will be able to stop virus replication sooner so that the virus will not be able to damage the nerves, which can eventually lead to [adverse effects] like secondary glaucoma." He also emphasized that "drugs to control inflammation during herpetic kera- titis [steroids] can contribute to the onset of secondary open angle glau- coma." However, Dr. Shukla predicts a lower need for steroid treatment with this drug. Dr. Shukla's team has already tested BX785 on HSV-2 and found it efficacious in several infection mod- els, though this research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. They have been approached by researchers interested in testing the drug for conjunctivitis and HIV as well. Dr. Shukla said he and his team are working on developing an oral or injectable version of the drug to treat viruses systemically. This will be important for BX795 to be of value in HIV research, he said. They are also going to be con- ducting long-term toxicity studies to make sure there are no long-term toxic effects of the topical version of the drug in the animal model. This is especially important because the drug works on host cells. After that is established, they will seek permis- sion from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enter human clinical trials. This, Dr. Shukla said, could take place in the next 2–3 years. While this initial research was still being conducted, a separate study was published that also found BX795 inhibited HSV-1 and HSV-2 replication. 2 EW Contact information Shukla: dshukla@uic.edu References 1. Jaishankar D, et al. An off-target effect of BX795 blocks herpes simples virus type 1 infection of the eye. Sci Transl Med. 2018;10. 2. Su AR, et al. BX-795 inhibits HSV-1 and HSV-2 replication by blocking the JNK/p38 pathways without interfering with PDK1 activity in host cells. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2017;38:402–414.

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