US-12622933-B2 - Method for improving eye condition

US12622933B2US 12622933 B2US12622933 B2US 12622933B2US-12622933-B2

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for improving eye conditions comprising orally administering to humans, an ethanol-soluble component-containing degradation product obtained by degrading a comb with a protease and removing a solid.

Inventors

Sachio Wakayama

Assignees

LAIMU CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20220920
Priority Date: 20220214

Claims (7)

1 . A method for reducing intraocular pressure, comprising orally administering to a human in need thereof, an effective amount of a composition containing a degradation product obtained by degrading a comb with a protease and removing solids from the comb degraded with the protease, wherein; the degradation product contains an ethanol-soluble component in an amount of 70% by dry weight or more; and the degradation product contains a low-molecular weight hyaluronic acid having a molecular weight of 380 g/mol to 5000 g/mol in an amount of 95% by mass or more of total hyaluronic acid contained in the degradation product.
2 . The method for reducing intraocular pressure according to claim 1 , wherein the degradation product is a liquid product obtained by degrading a comb with a protease and removing a solid from the comb degraded with the protease, or a freeze-dried product of the liquid product.
3 . The method for reducing intraocular pressure according to claim 2 , wherein the liquid product or the freeze-dried product thereof contains a free amino acid.
4 . The method for reducing intraocular pressure according to claim 2 , wherein the degradation product is the liquid product.
5 . The method for reducing intraocular pressure according to claim 2 , wherein the degradation product is the freeze-dried product.
6 . The method for reducing intraocular pressure according to claim 2 , wherein the composition contains an excipient.
7 . The method for reducing intraocular pressure according to claim 2 , wherein the composition contains dextrin.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for improving eye conditions using a protease-degraded product of a comb. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the modern society, there are a flood of factors, such as long-term personal computer work, drying by an air conditioner and wearing a contact lens, which worsen eye conditions, and there is an increasing number of patients appealing eye dryness, fringing, pain, razor and vision blur. Such deterioration of eye conditions significantly reduces quality of life, and if the condition is left untreated to cause aggravated conditions, damage may occur in the cornea and conjunctiva, leading to body disorders such as headache and dizziness. Consequently, when eye conditions have worsened, it is important to perform an early treatment to improve the eye conditions. Regarding pharmaceutical preparations for improving eye conditions, generally employed are ophthalmic solutions to be directly administered to eyes, artificial tears, hyaluronic acid formulations, drugs that promote the production or secretion of mucin, or liquid pharmaceutical preparations containing anti-inflammatory agents such as adrenal corticosteroids (for example, see PTL 1). A process for administration of such an ophthalmic solution is such that, with hands clean and taking care to pull the lower eyelid of the eyepiece down while preventing the tip of the eye drop container from touching the eyelash or eyelid, about one drop of an eye lotion is dropped to the eye, then the eye is lightly closed, and thereafter the excessive eye lotion having adhered to the eye lid or the skin is rubbed off with a tissue. [PTL 1] JP 2019-38783 (A) SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As described above, for a medical treatment for improving an eye condition, generally used are eye-drops. However, eye-drops have problems that a complicated procedure is necessary and a patient burden is great. When patients are children, they may have some fear of drug entering the eye, and may move or cry, and in such cases, eye-drop administration could not be attained well. Further, after eye-drops are once opened, microbes may enter them to readily propagate therein, and therefore care is needed in that, after opened, eye-drops must be stored in refrigerators, or the expiration date after opening must be protected, but it is difficult to thoroughly protect such cautions. Furthermore, for preventing proliferation of microbes, a preservative chemical is generally added to eye-drops, and there is a risk that the preservative chemical may cause corneal epithelium disorder or allergy. As described above, eye-drops are difficult to handle, and it is desired to develop a therapeutic agent in an administration type that facilitates intake or storage and can improve eye conditions. However, up to now, no oral medicine is known which can be administered by mouth and can exhibit a function of effectively improving eye conditions. Accordingly, for the purpose of solving the problems associated with the conventional technology, the present inventors have made further investigations intending to provide a composition capable of improving eye conditions by oral administration. Also the inventors have made investigations intending to provide a production method for producing such a composition at low cost. As a result of assiduous studies for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have found for the first time that, by orally administering a degradation product prepared by degrading combs with a protease, eye conditions can be improved. With that, the present inventors have found that, utilizing the effects of the protease degradation product of combs, there can be provided an orally-administrable improvers for eye conditions that are more readily handleable than eye-drops. The present invention has been proposed based on these findings, and specifically has the following constitution. The present invention provides a method for improving an eye condition comprising orally administering to human, a degradation product containing an ethanol-soluble component, which is obtained by degrading a comb with a protease and removing a solid. The present invention also provides an eye condition improver for oral administration to human, which contains a degradation product containing an ethanol-soluble component obtained by degrading a comb with a protease and removing a solid. The eye condition improvement includes one or more selected from the group consisting of vision enhancement, intraocular pressure reduction, vision sharpening, sleep improvement, dry eye improvement and ocular pain suppression. For example, the eye condition improvement is one or more selected from the group consisting of vision enhancement, intraocular pressure reduction, vision sharpening and sleep improvement. For example, the eye condition improvement is dry eye improvement. For example, the eye condition improvement is ocular pain suppression. The et