Grant: CIHR Fellowship

The cornea is the transparent window that covers the anterior part of the eye and lets light rays in. Diseased corneas become opacified and lead to visual impairment, affecting over 27 million people globally. Corneal transplantation using cadaveric tissue is the only currently available treatment but is at high risk of immune rejection and failure in patients affected by severe pathologies, such as infection and trauma. Artificial corneal prostheses have higher success rates in these cases but often lead to vision-threatening complications, such as glaucoma. Most patients with high risk corneas are not prioritized for corneal grafting due to donor tissue shortage, have limited access to expensive prostheses, and remain untreated. Accessible effective alternatives are urgently needed. Our team developed corneal implants made from short collagen-like peptides that serve as scaffolds to be repopulated by patients' own cells, thus regenerating the cornea. Fully synthetic, cell-free, and incorporating an anti-inflammatory agent, these implants carry virtually no risk of immune rejection. Preclinical studies have confirmed their efficacy in recovering corneal transparency. We aim to test these implants in a first-in-human clinical trial. Implants will be manufactured and undergo quality control in a certified environment. After Health Canada approval, we will recruit ten patients with unilateral high-risk corneal blindness. Those receiving the implant will be compared to those undergoing traditional donor corneal transplantation. Patients will be followed over two years to determine implant safety and preliminary efficacy in rehabilitating vision. The study will allow to determine whether a larger clinical trial is justified. Collagen-peptide based implants may represent a solution for high-risk patients currently deemed untreatable. Their large-scale manufacturing could reduce the societal cost of blindness and alleviate the cornea donor tissue shortage worldwide.