Redefining eye treatment for a healthier future

Kruti Naik, a Ph.D. candidate in ocular drug delivery at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) at Wits University, could change the way eye infections and conditions are treated. Eye drops are the go-to treatment, but Naik is determined to find efficient and cheaper ways to treat vision problems.

With about one in six people in Africa being blind, and a rising number of visual health issues owing to untreated communicable diseases (such as HIV) and non-communicable diseases (such as diabetes and hypertension), her work is timely.

Imagine that a tiny patch with micro-scale needles, much like a contact lens, painlessly delivers medicine to the front part of the eye and specific cells. There’s no wastage, such as with administering eye drops, and there’s no need for refrigeration of the medication—a major challenge in Africa’s health care facilities.

Microneedles offer significant potential for creating smart drug delivery systems that are biocompatible, biodegradable, and tailored to specific medical needs.

“We wanted our approach to fight off severe infection of the eye, which we are seeing more of, amid the scourge of antibiotic resistance,” said Naik.

Naik aims to integrate nanomedicine principles with microneedle delivery systems to further enhance efficiency, targeting, and safety. This combined approach can combat eye infections, degenerative diseases, and inflammation, which are often connected with infectious and non-communicable diseases like diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.

She added that eye infections can lead to blindness if not treated promptly and efficiently. The technology is being developed to be minimally invasive, precise and “can make a life-saving difference.”

Naik, who is supervised by Professors Yahya Choonara, Lisa du Toit and Mershen Govender, is currently on a research visit to the Laverty Lab at Queen’s University Belfast, working collaboratively with Dr. Garry Laverty to develop a peptide-based hydrogel that can automatically assemble itself.

The hydrogels fight infections and act as long-lasting implants to deliver medication steadily over time, especially for diseases like HIV, TB and other chronic illnesses.

Naik received a Wits Foundation UK fellowship to spend time at Queen’s University and to extend her Ph.D. work on microneedles.

“What’s exciting about our work is that we can transfer our technology to other disease areas, such as cancer targeting,” she says.

Naik’s previous work showed that hydrogels are safe, stable, and capable of being injected into the eye with fine needles (mimicking the natural vitreous), then releasing medication steadily over weeks. In meticulous animal and lab studies, hydrogels were gentle on tissues and acted as long-lasting drug depots, reducing the need for repeated invasive procedures.

As we celebrate Women’s Month in South Africa, Naik’s story exemplifies the integral role women play in innovative and impactful research.

Inspired by mentors at WADDP and now thriving on an international stage, she demonstrates the power of female perspectives in science to advance medicine.

Her work underscores the importance of patient-centric, accessible health care solutions, which she says are “especially important for women, children, and vulnerable populations in Africa.”

Her Ph.D. work is reimagining health care: making treatments more precise, less invasive, and better suited to real-world conditions.