Ribozyme to Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen to Treat Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy

iments, rabbits in sham-treated groups usually exhibited development of severe PVR characterized by focal traction or RD. Animals in the PCNA ribozyme‐treated groups usually did not exhibit an RD. If they did have RD, it was small and localized, or focal tractions developed that did not progress to the degree that the sham-treated animal eyes did over the follow-up period. The in vivo use of a lipid delivery vehicle resulted in a precipitate; however, an effective naked ribozyme dose was identified that did not cause this side effect. CONCLUSIONS. In addition to validating the newly developed dispase PVR rabbit model, the results indicate that ribozyme targeted against the cell cycle agent PCNA is efficacious in the treatment or prevention of PVR in the rabbit eye. These experiments suggest that chimeric ribozyme targeted against PCNA may have a therapeutic or preventative role in humans. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2002;43:3338 ‐3348)