Cytisine eye drops for benzalkonium chloride-induced dry eye: safety and efficacy evaluation

Abstract

This experiment aimed to investigate the feasibility of cytisine (CYT) in treating eye diseases with ocular topical application. An in vitro cytotoxicity test, a hen’s egg test-chorioallantoic membrane (HET-CAM), and a mouse eye tolerance test were used to fully reveal the ocular safety profiles of CYT. For the efficacy evaluations, CYT’s effects on cell wound healing, against H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress damages on cells, and on benzalkonium chloride (BAC)–induced dry eye disease (DED) in mice were evaluated. Results showed that CYT did not show any cytotoxicities at concentrations no higher than 250 μg/ml, while lipoic acid (α-LA) at 250 μg/ml and BAC at 1.25 μg/ml showed significant cytotoxicities within 48 h incubation. The HET-CAM and mouse eye tolerance test confirmed that 0.5% CYT eye drops demonstrated good safety characteristics. Efficacy evaluations showed that CTY significantly promoted cell migration and wound healing. CYT significantly improved cell survival against H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress damage by reversing the imbalance between the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant defense mechanisms. The animal evaluation of the BAC-induced dry eye model revealed that CYT demonstrated a strong treatment effect, including reversing ocular surface damages, recovering corneal sensitivity, and inhibiting neovascularization; HMGB1/NF-κB signaling was involved in this DED treatment by CTY. In conclusion, CYT had strong experimental treatment efficacy against DED with good ocular safety profiles, and it might be a novel and promising drug for DED.

Graphic Abstract

Keywords:

• Cytisine
• cytotoxicity
• ocular tolerance
• dry eye disease

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82171018, 82201144), the program for Youth Beijing Scholar 2020 (022), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2023MH343).