Cyclosporine in Dry Eye: A Review

Dry eye syndrome (DES) is a multifactorial disease with varying prevalence affecting great chunk of po pulation worldwide. Various environmental, nutritional, hormonal and external factors altering the functional i ntegrity of the ocular surface components have been implicated. The imbalance results in changes in epithelium causing desiccation and setting up an inflammatory cascade which causes dysregulation of the ocular surface regeneration syste m. With increasing knowledge of the etiology and mechanisms involved in the development of dry eye, role of cy closporine A has been well established with numerous clinical studie s. This has led to the US Food and Drug Administrat ion (FDA) approval of the drug for the treatment of dry eye. This article reviews the pathology of development o f dry eye, pharmacology of cyclosporine, use of cyclosporine A in dry eye established via various animal and clin ical studies.