Journal of Personalized Medicine

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Dear Colleagues,

More than 100 hundred years ago, Sir William Osler said, “The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease”. Nowadays, after the development of standardized therapies and protocols based on solid clinical evidence, this old saying is again of interest, with the significant development of genetics and artificial intelligence. Personalized medicine is a new emerging trend that allows the tailoring of healthcare according to the needs of individual patients. Understanding the complex interplay of pathophysiological mechanisms triggered by genetic, inflammatory, and metabolic factors helps in the provision of more efficient care and attainment of better outcomes. Diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma are some of the most frequent causes on blindness and visual impairment worldwide. The identification of novel biomarkers and characterization of different phenotypes may help in risk stratification and the adjustment of the therapeutic approach. Deep learning models based on AI and telemedicine screening have been developed more and more in recent years, and increasing evidence shows that they are helpful in the decision-making process and for tailoring the therapeutic approach. Ocular gene therapy has reached important milestones starting with approval in 2017 of voretigene neparvovec-rzyl (Luxturna, Spark Therapeutics) for retinal dystrophies with RPE65 mutations, followed by ongoing clinical trials for AMD, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.

For this Special Issue, we welcome original papers, reviews, commentaries, and short reports regarding a personalized approach in retinal diseases that enables treatment to be based on an individual's genetic, biomarker profile, or artificial intelligence models.

Dr. Ana Dascalu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Personalized Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

biomarkers
gene therapy
artificial intelligence in ophthalmology
inherited retinal diseases
diabetic retinopathy
age-related macular degeneration
glaucoma

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 1478 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Efficacity and Safety of the Fluocinolone Acetonide Implant in Uveitic Macular Edema: A Real-Life Study from the French Uveitis Network

by Matthieu Jabbour, Laurent Kodjikian, Alexandre Bourdin, Marie-Bénédicte Rougier, Yasmine Serrar, Michel Weber, Hélène Massé, Driss Mazhar, Sara Perez-Roustit, Christophe Chiquet, Marie Nöelle Delyfer, Bahram Bodaghi and Sara Touhami

J. Pers. Med. 2024, 14(3), 245; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm14030245 - 24 Feb 2024

Viewed by 832

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the fluocinolone acetonide implant (FAi, Iluvien^® Horus pharma, Nice, France) in non-infectious uveitic macular edema (UME) and to approach the predictive factors of treatment response. Methods: This retrospective, multicenter real-life study included patients with chronic non-infectious UME who received intravitreal FAi after at least two dexamethasone implants (DEXi). Results: Twenty-six eyes from 22 patients (73.1% of females) were included. The mean age was 60.4 ± 16 years. The mean follow-up was 11.4 ± 2 months. The mean baseline best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.43 ± 0.36 LogMAR, improving significantly after 1, 3, 6 and 12 months (all p < 0.05 vs. baseline). The mean baseline central macular thickness (CMT) was 429 ± 110 μm, improving significantly after 1, 3, 6 and 12 months (all p < 0.05 vs. baseline). Five eyes (19.2%) developed ocular hypertension during the follow-up, requiring initiation or strengthening of intraocular pressure lowering medication. The majority of eyes (77%) did not require any rescue DEXi during the available 12-month follow-up. The resolution of UME after DEXi seemed to predict the anatomical response after FAi. The baseline presence of a disorganization of the inner retinal layers (DRIL) and hyperreflective foci (HRF) were both associated with a higher likelihood of requiring rescue DEXi injections. Conclusion: FAi implantation led to a significant BCVA and CMT improvement with a good safety profile over the 12-month follow-up. Predictive factors of treatment outcomes seem to include the anatomical response to DEXi and the presence of DRIL and HRF at baseline. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Personalized Diagnosis and Therapies in Retinal Diseases)

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Review

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20 pages, 1676 KiB

Open AccessReview

Advances in Therapeutic Contact Lenses for the Management of Different Ocular Conditions

by Mariana Ioniță, George Mihail Vlăsceanu, Alin Georgian Toader and Marius Manole

J. Pers. Med. 2023, 13(11), 1571; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm13111571 - 03 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1428

Abstract

In the advent of an increasingly aging population and due to the popularity of electronic devices, ocular conditions have become more prevalent. In the world of medicine, accomplishing eye medication administration has always been a difficult task. Despite the fact that there are many commercial eye drops, most of them have important limitations, due to quick clearance mechanisms and ocular barrers. One solution with tremendous potential is the contact lens used as a medication delivery vehicle to bypass this constraint. Therapeutic contact lenses for ocular medication delivery have attracted a lot of attention because they have the potential to improve ocular bioavailability and patient compliance, both with minimal side effects. However, it is essential not to compromise essential features such as water content, optical transparency, and modulus to attain positive in vitro and in vivo outcomes with respect to a sustained drug delivery profile from impregnated contact lenses. Aside from difficulties like drug stability and burst release, the changing of lens physico-chemical features caused by therapeutic or non-therapeutic components can limit the commercialization potential of pharmaceutical-loaded lenses. Research has progressed towards bioinspired techniques and smart materials, to improve the efficacy of drug-eluting contact lenses. The bioinspired method uses polymeric materials, and a specialized molecule-recognition technique called molecular imprinting or a stimuli–responsive system to improve biocompatibility and support the drug delivery efficacy of drug-eluting contact lenses. This review encompasses strategies of material design, lens manufacturing and drug impregnation under the current auspices of ophthalmic therapies and projects an outlook onto future opportunities in the field of eye condition management by means of an active principle-eluting contact lens. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Personalized Diagnosis and Therapies in Retinal Diseases)

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