Laser systems, in ophthalmic applications, are utilized in the treatment of various ophthalmic diseases such as in ocular oncology and age-related macular degeneration through photochemical mechanism of photodynamic therapy. In addition, these lasers can be used to activate drug delivery systems in the retina to provide targeted drug therapy. PDT is a form of a combination treatment which utilizes light energy to activate a photoactive pharmaceutical (photosensitizer) to create a photodynamic reaction. Current photodynamic therapy devices out on the market are around 20 years old and the companies that manufacture the devices, do not provide yearly maintenance services for the devices. Therefore, Modulight has developed the multi-indication ML6710i ophthalmic laser platform and the beam shaping unit ML-SLA to address the need for supported PDT equipment and to target the treatment of oncological and various other diseases affecting the posterior of the eye with the capability to provide laser light ranging from 400 nm to 2000 nm depending on the specific customer needs. ML-SLA has been tested to yield a superior beam quality and enable a larger spot size range than any existing beam shaping unit in the market, thus eliminating the need for multi-spot treatment of larger lesions. The device connects to Modulight Cloud services, enhancing treatment planning and post-operative analysis. In addition, the ML6710i laser platform has the capability of including a camera module to record the intra-operative fundus view into Modulight Cloud to further assist in post-operative treatment analysis.
Personalized medicine is one of the main directions in current cancer care. To support this trend, Modulight has designed a laser illumination platform with real-time spectral monitoring to adjust treatments based on each patient’s optical properties of the tissue, providing more personalization to light-based treatments. The laser has been designed to illuminate and retrieve spectral data from the tumor tissue simultaneously from up to eight different locations. The medical laser is cloud-connected, and all diagnostic data is downloaded in real time into the analytics server to assist in the personalized treatment decisions. This enables machine learning and AI-based data analytics to process recorded data to make more informed treatment decisions and deliver the best treatment outcomes to patients. The laser with this optical monitoring feature is currently being evaluated in glioblastoma trials where illumination can be tailored through spectral monitoring of the fluorescent drug and optical properties of the treated tissue.
Delivery of pharmaceuticals to the eye posterior poses a major challenge in ophthalmology. A promising drug delivery platform is indocyanine green (ICG) liposomes, which absorb near-infrared light resulting in a release of pharmaceutical molecules. The Modulight ophthalmic laser platform has been designed for treatments targeting the eye posterior and can also excite the absorption band of the liposomes. The laser connects with Modulight Cloud, enabling artificial intelligence (AI) based treatment planning by correlating the treatment parameters and success, which could increase the efficacy of future treatments. The same algorithms could deduce which treatment parameters work with which liposomal delivery parameters.
Here we present novel cloud-connected theranostic medical laser platform specifically designed for activating and simultaneously monitoring multi-component oncological treatment processes. It may incorporate multiple wavelengths for inducing therapeutic effect or monitoring treatment in real-time. The same low-invasive optical probers can be used for treatment and monitoring. We believe that this theranostic laser platform will allow clinicians to develop improved treatment outcomes for cancer patients that may be based on machine learning and AI in the future.
Photodynamic therapy is a cancer treatment modality with great potential but moderate clinical success. One reason for the sub-optimal clinical success is the limited knowledge about light distribution in tissues and lack of ways to monitor treatment real-time. Modulight has developed a laser platform for glioblastoma which will utilize real-time treatment monitoring based on spectral properties of the tissue and the drug. This therapy modality is based on photodynamic therapy with 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) primarily because the approved use of 5-ALA in fluorescence guided resections for glioblastoma and because of the known photobleaching properties of 5-ALA metabolite Protoporphyrin-IX (PPIX). Photobleaching means the photochemical alteration of a dye or a fluorophore in a way that it becomes permanently unable to fluoresce, and the real-time spectral monitoring is based on monitoring the intensity of PPIX fluorescence emission at 703 nm upon excitation with treatment wavelength 635 nm. Modulight glioblastoma platform enables monitoring PPIX fluorescence throughout the treatment to inspect the decline in fluorescence intensity. This photobleaching phenomenon represents the time region where the maximal therapeutic effect occurs so the ability to monitor this would ultimately enable optimizing the treatment time individually for each patient. Novel Modulight lasers are internet connected so that the treatment monitoring data can be immediately uploaded to cloud improving data management and review and possible future machine learning and AI based medicine.
Different wavelength lasers are widely used in ophthalmology for example for selectively heating certain tissues of the eye or unleashing the potential of photoactive pharmaceuticals. The problem with many ophthalmic laser-based treatments such as photodynamic therapy for age-related macular degeneration is that the laser technology is outdated and no longer supported despite the wide clinical use of these therapy modalities. Modulight has developed a configurable cloud-connected ophthalmic laser device that can house any of Modulight’s semiconductor lasers and is wirelessly controlled with an iPad. In addition to novel ophthalmic laser technology, Modulight has also developed a novel beam shaping unit which yields superior beam quality and enables exceptionally large treatment spots eliminating the need for multi-spot treatment for larger lesions.
Traditionally one of the biggest challenges with light-based treatment modalities such as photodynamic therapy or different tumor ablation techniques is to determine how much light should be applied to the tissue and how that will be distributed to activate a bio-photonic process or a drug. Different tools have been developed to model light distribution in tissue, but this has not solved the problem of how to know what happens in the tissue during the treatment. Modulight has assessed this problem and developed a state-of-the-art laser platform with real-time treatment monitoring capability. Modulight ML7710i platform enables illumination and detection with up to eight illumination channels on same or different wavelength(s). Spectral measurements can be measured and collected with the same fibers that are used for illumination which is minimally invasive and eliminates the need for complicated measurement set-ups with moving fibers around in the tumor tissue or having separate monitoring probes. The system also is connected to cloud making treatment planning, data collection and analysis easy and reliable enabling machine learning and AI based medicine in the future. ML7710i type of medical device makes it possible not only to measure the light intensity at tumor margins but also monitor the progress of the treatment by measuring photosensitizer photobleaching, drug release or activation of multimodal drugs. Photobleaching monitoring with ML7710i is currently utilized in 5-ALA mediated clinical trials for glioblastoma and the data looks very promising. In addition, also drug release from novel light activated nanoparticles or other drug carriers can be effectively monitored for pharmaceuticals that possess fluorescent potential or carry fluorescence labels.
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