A protocol to inject ocular drug implants into mouse eyes.

Ocular drug implants (ODIs) are beneficial for treating ocular diseases. However, the lack of a robust injection approach for small-eyed model organisms has been a major technical limitation in developing ODIs. Here, we present a cost-effective, minimally invasive protocol to deliver ODIs into the mouse vitreous called Mouse Implant Intravitreal Injection (MI3). MI3 provides two alternative surgical approaches (air-pressure or plunger) to deliver micro-scaled ODIs into milli-scaled eyes, and expands the preclinical platforms to determine ODIs' efficacy, toxicity, and pharmacokinetics. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Sun et al. (2021).

An intravitreal implant injection method for sustained drug delivery into mouse eyes.

Using small molecule drugs to treat eye diseases carries benefits of specificity, scalability, and transportability, but their efficacy is significantly limited by a fast intraocular clearance rate. Ocular drug implants (ODIs) present a compelling means for the slow and sustained release of small molecule drugs inside the eye. However, methods are needed to inject small molecule ODIs into animals with small eyes, such as mice, which are the primary genetic models for most human ocular diseases. Consequently, it has not been possible to fully investigate efficacy and ocular pharmacokinetics of ODIs. Here, we present a robust, cost-effective, and minimally invasive method called "mouse implant intravitreal injection" (MI3) to deliver ODIs into mouse eyes. This method will expand ODI research to cover the breadth of human eye diseases modeled in mice.