A novel bevacizumab delivery system using solid lipid nanoparticles for potential wet age-related macular degeneration treatment: An in vivo study

Degenerative ocular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are typically treated with intravitreal (IVT) injections of anti-VEGF antibodies such as bevacizumab (BVZ). However, frequent IVT injections are associated with significant risks, including adverse effects and low patient compliance. This paper proposes solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) as an innovative drug delivery system to address these challenges. Indeed, SLNs offer advantages such as improved stability and prolonged release of the loaded compounds. After assessing BVZ prolonged release from SLNs by in vitro release studies, accurate in vivo studies were performed in a laser-induced CNV model in Brown Norway rats. The aim was to evaluate the efficacy of BVZ-SLNs in comparison to conventional treatments like Avastin®. Techniques including optical coherence tomography (OCT) were employed to assess the potential neovascularization inhibition. The results show that BVZ-SLNs administration can significantly decrease vascular density, even with a difference of 3.7% with Avastin®. Overall, the findings underscore SLNs as a promising platform for ocular drug delivery offering a valid strategy for enhanced therapeutic efficacy and patient compliance in the treatment of degenerative ocular pathologies.