Morphological study of the effects of intravitreous administration of mycophenolic acid in rabbits

• Grant number: 10/10303-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2010
• End date: August 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Physiological Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Christina Joselevitch
• Grantee: Rafael Mantuaneli Ferraro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 08/58731-2 - Vision as a sensitive indicator of conditions threatening retinal and central nervous system function, AP.TEM

Abstract

Uveitis is a disease that affects a large portion of the world population and can cause blindness. Corticosteroids are the first option in terms of treatment for this chronic, non-infectious ocular inflammation. However, there is frequent need of administration of other immunosuppressants with unpleasant side effects, which leads to treatment interruption. Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is one of such immunossuppressants used with success for the systemic treatment of uveitis. It is a prodrug that is converted in the liver into the active drug, mycophenolic acid (MPA), after oral administration. This projetcs aims to investigate the effects of direct intraocular injection of MPA, in order to minimize the side effects of its systemic administration and to increase drug availability within the eye. Rabbits will be intraocularly inoculated with varying doses of the drug, and the number of cells in the retinal ganglion cell layer will be counted and compared among experimental groups. (AU)