Research progress of pharmacokinetic model of ophthalmic drugs

Vision is closely tied to quality of life. Traditional drug delivery routes for clinical therapy of key ocular diseases, such as glaucoma, are topical and systemic administrations, which are less invasive but often face some physiological barriers such as tear film turnover, corneal penetration, and blood-ocular barrier. These barriers may limit penetration and distribution of ophthalmic drugs, resulting in limitation of information about pharmacokinetic characteristics of drugs in human eye. To address this, some ocular based compartment models, including classical ocular compartmental model and physiologically based pharmacokinetic(PBPK)model, have been established to illustrate dispositions of drugs in eyes. For classical ocular compartmental model, cornea or vitreous humor serves as central compartment and other ocular tissues are identified as peripheral compartments. The PBPK model, incorporating dynamic factors such as changes in ocular blood flow, effects of transporters, blood-ocular barrier, may characterize complex ocular physiology structure and dispositions of drugs in eyes. These models can contribute to development of new ophthalmic drugs and therapy strategies for ocular diseases. Here, the characteristics of drugs in eye following administrations via various routes, general ocular compartmental model and PBPK model as well as their applications in the development of new ophthalmic drugs and drug regimen for ocular diseases are reviened.