Journal of Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology Commentary
Rocha-Sousa and Barbosa-Breda, J Clin Exp Ophthalmol 2016, 7:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2155-9570.1000525
Open Access
Where Should We Be Looking for the Future of IOP Lowering Drugs? Commentary on "New Therapeutic Targets for Intraocular Pressure Lowering" Amandio Rocha-Sousa* and Joao Barbosa-Breda Ophthalmology Department of Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, Portugal *Corresponding
author: Amandio Rocha-Sousa, Ophthalmology Department of Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, Portugal, Tel: 00351918431727; E-mail:
[email protected] Received date: January 30, 2016; Accepted date: February 23, 2016; Published date: February 26, 2016 Copyright: © 2015 Rocha-Sousa A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Commentary Since the release of "New Therapeutic Targets for Intraocular Pressure Lowering" [1] some of the potential therapeutics has shown promising results, and interestingly their mechanisms of action focus mainly in the trabecular meshwork (TM), which is probably the main target that has not been fully used when trying to lower intraocular pressure (IOP). First of all, some Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) inhibitors have reached phase 3 trials. AR-13324 (Rhopressa™, Aerie Pharmaceuticals, California) can lower IOP, not only by increasing outflow through the conventional (trabecular meshwork) pathway, but also by reducing episcleral venous pressure [2] and inhibition of norepinephrine transporter (NET; which reduces the amount of aqueous produced) [3]. In a 3-arm phase 3 trial, Rocket 2 (held in the United States of America, USA), Rhopressa™ (0.02% qd or 0.02% bid) was compared to timolol (0.5% bid) in subjects with baseline intraocular pressure >20 and
