A revolutionary contact lens material has been developed by a multi-disciplinary team at the University of Waterloo. This innovative material doubles as a corneal bandage and a controlled drug release system, presenting a promising solution for faster eye healing.
Corneal abrasion patients are usually required to wear a transparent, oxygen-permeable bandage contact lens for a period of seven to ten days. They are also given antibiotic eyedrops. However, the single-use nature of the antibiotic application makes it challenging to maintain a consistent level of drugs for a sustained period on the eye.
Dr. Lyndon Jones, a professor at Waterloo’s School of Optometry & Vision Science and director of the Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE), explained that the new material is a targeted-release drug delivery system that responds to the body’s needs. He noted, “The more injured you are, the more drug gets delivered, which is unique and potentially a game changer.”
The challenge was developing a drug-delivering bandage contact lens that could treat the eye while facilitating healing. Dr. Jones collaborated with Dr. Susmita Bose, Dr. Chau-Minh Phan, and Dr. Evelyn Yim from the University of Waterloo to create this unique material.
This innovative material uses collagen, a protein naturally found in the eye and involved in wound healing. However, collagen alone is too weak to create a contact lens. Dr. Yim developed a method to transform gelatin methacrylate, a collagen derivative, into a biomaterial that is ten times stronger.
This collagen-based material has the unique ability to degrade when exposed to an enzyme called matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), which is naturally found in the eye. Dr. Phan explained, “When you have a wound, these enzymes are released in greater quantity. If you have a material that can be degraded by this enzyme, and we add a drug to this material, we can engineer it so it releases the drug in a way that is proportional to the amount of enzymes present at the wound. So, the bigger the wound, the higher the amount of drug released.”
They used bovine lactoferrin, a model wound-healing drug, and encapsulated it in the material. In a human cell culture study, complete wound healing was achieved within five days using the drug-releasing novel contact lens material.
One additional benefit of the material is that it is only activated at eye temperatures, providing an inbuilt storage mechanism.
The team is currently working on refining the material and experimenting with different drugs. They believe that this material has a wide range of potential applications, including treatment for large skin ulcers. This groundbreaking research was recently published in the journal Pharmaceutics.
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