Abstract
Microbial infections caused by wearing contact lenses has become a major health problem, so the design and development of antibacterial contact lenses has attracted widespread attention. To safely and effectively inhibit bacterial adhesion of contact lenses, we have facilely prepared epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) loaded starch hydrogel/contact lens composites by in-situ free radical polymerization of the mixture containing 2-hydroxylethyl methacrylate, methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. The adequate transmittance of the resulting contact lenses was characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, and their satisfactory stability was examined using differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. Whereafter, cytotoxicity and degradation experiments were performed to investigate the biocompatibility and degradability of the contact lenses. The results showed the nontoxicity and good degradability of the composites. Besides, the capacity of the contact lenses for in vitro release of EGCG was also evaluated, and the results showed that the EGCG in these contact lenses can be sustainably released for at least 14 days. Further bacterial adhesion assay suggested that the EGCG loaded starch hydrogel/contact lenses could significantly reduce the adhesion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa compared to the control. The EGCG loaded starch hydrogel/contact lens composites provide a potential intervention strategy for preventing ocular microbial infections and inhibiting bacterial keratitis.
Highlights
There are more than 140 million contact lenses wearers all over the world (Stapleton et al, 2007)
We firstly reported the preparation of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) loaded starch hydrogel/contact lens composites by in-situ free radical polymerization of the mixture containing 2-hydroxylethyl methacrylate, methacrylic acid, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, AIBN, starch and EGCG
Microbial infection is a common problem associated with contact lenses, and poor sanitary conditions and overnight wearing contact lenses are the main risk factors for microbial keratitis (Cope et al, 2015; Cope et al, 2017)
Summary
There are more than 140 million contact lenses wearers all over the world (Stapleton et al, 2007). The contact lenses have been widely utilized in the vision correction of nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), presbyopia and astigmatism. It can cause several ocular discomforts, such as neovascularization, acute red eye and corneal abrasion (Kates and Tuli, 2021). Bacterial keratitis was induced during wearing or storage of contact lenses, especially in the case of corneal abrasion (Liu et al, 2020) due to the bacterial adhesion and biofilm. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), an opportunistic Gram-negative pathogen, is the most common cause for the contact lens-associated bacterial keratitis (Hilliam et al, 2020; Spernovasilis et al, 2020). It is of significance to develop the highly biocompatible and antimicrobial contact lenses for effective prevention of contact lens-associated bacterial keratitis (Seggio et al, 2019; Fleiszig et al, 2020; Meretoudi et al, 2021)
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