When you experience pain, such as a headache or muscle soreness, you can take an analgesic, like ibuprofen or acetaminophen, and go about your day. If you cut your finger or fall down and get an abrasion wound, you can wash the injured area, put on some rubbing alcohol or an over-the-counter topical antibiotic, put on a bandage and go about your day.
It’s a different story for the eyes. Eye pain or discomfort needs something other than ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Not to mention, it’s not a good idea to put rubbing alcohol or an over-the-counter topical antibiotic in the eye when it comes ocular pain from injury or dry eye. As you can guess, research is underway to better understand and develop ways to treat ocular pain.
One potential treatment was developed by Haley Perry OD, an optometrist in private practice and the owner of Elite Eye Care in Weaverville, North Carolina. She is working on a patent-pending corneal neurotrophic therapy that could change how dry eye is treated. What lead to this was no big “A-ha” moment. Rather, she noticed that dry eye was affecting her refractions.
“Tear film instability led to inconsistent measurements and a higher rate of remakes,” said Perry. “Once I began taking dry eye more seriously and truly listening to these patients, my practice shifted.”
Over time, she was seeing more complex referrals and noticed a group of patients with severe ocular pain that didn’t match traditional dry eye findings. The closest parallel Perry could find was fibromyalgia, a condition marked by chronic pain without a sickness or injury as a cause. Once she stopped defaulting to psychological explanations and took the symptoms at face value, things started to change. Perry started asking herself: What if the pain patients are experiencing is real, even when it isn’t explained by what is currently being measured.
Her insights showed a critical gap: While existing treatments took care of inflammation and tear instability, there were few options that targeted ocular nerve pain. So, she developed a therapy to treat corneal neuropathic pain at its source. While there is not guarantee that her work will lead to viable treatment, Perry feels that it emphasizes the need for more understanding of ocular pain.
Perry’s work isn’t the only game in town. Researchers at the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Medicine are developing a technique to heal damage in the eye caused by dry eye, surgery, and exposure to toxins.
Normally, the cornea heals quickly, and that’s why most eye surgery patients can return their usual activities within a day or two. However, a small group of people who experience chronic dry eye and pain after eye surgery. Other people experience this as a result of dry eye. Still others have more serious eye injuries due to exposure to toxic chemicals.
The work was led by two UConn School of Medicine professors: Royce Mohan, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and Paola Bargagna-Mohan, Ph.D., assistant professor of neuroscience. About five years ago, their lab looked at Schwann cells in the cornea. These cells wrap themselves around nerve cells, forming a protective cover and helping signals travel along the nerve. Researchers assumed that these cells played a role corneal healing. So, they went to work isolating the Schwann cells, using single-cell RNA sequencing analysis to identify which genes they expressed. In doing this, they discovered a gene called DKK1 (Dickkopf WNT signaling pathway inhibitor 1), which they had not previously seen in corneal Schwann cells.
Next, they developed a DKK1 inhibitor that could be applied to the eyes of mouse models. As expected, they found that this inhibitor helped repair damage to the eye both from physical injury, such as a small incision made by during eye surgery, and chemical injury, such as exposure to nitrogen mustard. The mice treated with the DKK1 inhibitor recovered corneal sensation as it promoted Schwann cell and axon regeneration in both kinds of injuries.
In addition to this great discovery, researchers are excited about the possibility of developing the treatment into a product that can benefit those experiencing dry eye and various eye injuries. Once developed, this drug could help preserve vision, because when the cornea doesn’t heal properly, it can develops scars that permanently impair vision.
The big challenge is getting a topical solution to stay in the eye, since blinking washes 90 percent of the drug along with the tear fluid. To address this, researchers developed a way to get the drug into the stromal tissue, where the Schwann cells are located.
Mohan’s lab developed a patent-pending formula that uses micelles that encapsulates the DKK1 inhibitor. When used by patients as eyedrops, this could improve the effective delivery of the drug and reduce the need for constant reapplication.
“Cornea damage is notoriously difficult to repair, and this work is a promising novel approach to addressing the issue,” says Christopher Conners, Ph.D., Director of Licensing for Life Sciences at UConn’s Technology Commercialization Services (TCS), who helped evaluate this treatment and develop a strategy for its protection and commercialization. “At TCS, we are proud to support the development of groundbreaking treatments like this that can make a real difference in the lives of patients.”
No one want to feel pain and pain is usually a sign that something isn’t right. For the longest time, treatment options for ocular pain and eye injuries were limited. Thanks to research, patients who are dealing with ocular pain and eye injuries will soon have treatments that will relieve pain and preserve vision.
https://visionsource-eliteeye.com/about-us/doctors-staff/dr-haley-perry/
https://today.uconn.edu/2026/06/targeting-schwann-cells-a-new-approach-to-repairing-corneal-injury/