Pharmacology of Ocular Therapeutics

Providing an integrated review of ocular therapeutics across all relevant scientific domains, this book addresses the real-world requirements of ophthalmologists, pharmacists and optometrists, as observed in working side-by-side with these practitioners. Knowledge regarding the various agents used in ophthalmic practice has,historically, been scattered. Compiling the key aspects of these agents, in terms of pharmacology, toxicology, pharmaceutical sciences, ocular biochemistry and cell biology, provides an overview essential to comprehensive understanding of ocular drug therapy.

Chapters address factors affecting drug transfer across barriers, systemic toxicity of topically applied drugs, autonomic drugs used for diagnostics, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, glaucoma and antimicrobial therapies, and avenues for the development of new ocular drugs. The book also provides insights from drugs of herbal origin.

Valuable detail on pharmacological and pharmaceutical aspects of agents and formulations that are extemporaneously prepared in clinics and dispensaries is provided to inform day-to-day clinical practice in ophthalmology. Practicing and resident ophthalmologists, optometrists, pharmacists, nursing professionals and scholars in ocular drug research will benefit from explorations ofmucoadhesive polymers as tear substitutes, innovative ocular drug delivery systems, stem cell therapy, ocular pharmacogenomics, and

anti-angiogenic ocular chemotherapy, amongst other agents described.

Thirumurthy Velpandianis a Professor of Ocular Pharmacology at AIIMS, New Delhi. He has been involved in Research, Teaching & Pharmaceutical patient care activities of Ophthalmology. His area of interest is ocular pharmacokinetics of drugs, with reference to xenobiotic transporters across blood-ocular barriers, and developing animal models for various ophthalmic conditions. Pre-clinical drug development and their delivery approaches are ongoing research collaborations. His laboratory is also involved in tear lipidomics, ocular QSPR, pharmacogenomics, as well as chemical and environmental issues of the ocular toxicity of drugs. He was a visiting Professor to Harvard-MIT in 2012 and was a recipient of the Dr. Vinod Kumar Bhargava Award (2014) for clinical pharmacology and drug discovery by the National Academy of Medical Sciences, India. He currently serves as an Editor (Pharmacology) ofIndian J Physiology and Pharmacology.