Challenge of Corneal Ulcer Healing: A Novel Conceptual Framework, the "Triad" of Corneal Ulcer Healing/Corneal Neovascularization/Intraocular Pressure, and Avascular Tendon Healing, for Evaluation of Corneal Ulcer Therapy, Therapy of Neovascularization, Glaucoma Therapy, and Pentadecapeptide BPC 157 Efficacy.
This paper introduces a novel conceptual framework called the "triad" — linking corneal ulcer healing, corneal neovascularization, and intraocular pressure — and extends it to avascular tissue healing, using tendon as a parallel model. The authors propose cytoprotection as a unifying therapeutic principle and use the stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 as a primary illustrative agent. Drawing on preclinical studies, the paper describes findings in which BPC 157 reportedly normalized elevated intraocular pressure in glaucomatous rats, preserved retinal integrity, restored pupil function, maintained corneal transparency during ulcer or abrasion healing, and counteracted corneal neovascularization and dry eye. The paper also systematically maps a broad range of existing standard therapeutic agents — including ascorbate, fibronectin, EGF, anti-VEGF agents, corticosteroids, prostaglandin analogs, and Rho-kinase inhibitors — onto this triad to highlight shared pathways and inconsistencies across drug classes. The work is framed as a theoretical and narrative synthesis of preclinical data rather than a new clinical trial, and the authors explicitly call for further translational research before clinical application. Key limitations include the absence of human trial data and reliance on animal models.
Why this grade: The paper is a conceptual review synthesizing preclinical (rat model) findings for BPC 157 with no human clinical trial data presented, limiting evidence grading to animal-only despite its broad theoretical framework.
To better address the challenge of corneal ulcer healing, with already available standard agents, and those recently introduced, such as stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157, we introduced a novel conceptual framework-the "triad" of corneal ulcer healing↔corneal neovascularization↔intraocular pressure-and extended it to avascular tissues such as tendon. Within this framework, cytoprotection serves as the unifying principle, underscoring that therapeutic effects are not isolated but interconnected. Preclinical studies with BPC 157 therapy, as a cytoprotection agent, illustrate this integration. BPC 157 rapidly normalizes elevated intraocular pressure in glaucomatous rats, preserves retinal integrity, restores pupil function, maintains corneal transparency during ulcer or abrasion healing, and counteracts both corneal neovascularization and dry eye. In parallel, its consistent efficacy in tendon injury models highlights a cytoprotective specificity across avascular tissues. The cornea's "angiogenic privilege," preserved during healing and tendon recovery together, provides strong proof of concept. Furthermore, mapping standard therapeutic agents used for corneal ulcers, neovascularization, or glaucoma onto this triad, and linking them with tendon healing, reveals both shared pathways and inconsistencies across existing drug classes. Analyzed were the ascorbate, fibronectin, hyaluronic acid, metalloproteinase inhibitors, EGF, FGF, NGF, insulin, and IGF-1 (corneal ulcer healing), the antiangiogenic agents (endostatin, PAI-1, PEDF, angiostatin, TSP-1, TSP-2, IFN-α), corticosteroids, NSAIDs, cyclosporine A, anti-VEGF drops (treatment of corneal neovascularization), and alpha 2-agonists, beta-blockers, carboanhydrase inhibitors, muscarinic agonists, Rho-kinase inhibitors, and prostaglandin analogs (glaucoma). Taken together, these findings advance cytoprotection as a unifying therapeutic paradigm, with BPC 157 emerging as its first exemplar, and encourage further translational research toward clinical application.
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