Therapeutic Contact Lenses with Polymeric Vehicles for Ocular Drug Delivery: A Review.

Seung Choi,Jaeyun Kim

doi:10.3390/ma11071125

Seung Choi, Jaeyun Kim

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11071125

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Abstract

The eye has many barriers with specific anatomies that make it difficult to deliver drugs to targeted ocular tissues, and topical administration using eye drops or ointments usually needs multiple instillations to maintain the drugs’ therapeutic concentration because of their low bioavailability. A drug-eluting contact lens is one of the more promising platforms for controllable ocular drug delivery, and, among various manufacturing methods for drug-eluting contact lenses, incorporation of novel polymeric vehicles with versatile features makes it possible to deliver the drugs in a sustained and extended manner. Using the diverse physicochemical properties of polymers for nanoparticles or implants that are selected according to the characteristics of drugs, enhancement of encapsulation efficiency and prolonged drug release are possible. Even though therapeutic contact lenses with polymeric vehicles allow us to achieve sustained ocular drug delivery, drug leaching during storage and distribution and the possibility of problems related to surface roughness due to the incorporated vehicles still need to be discussed before application in a real clinic. This review highlights the overall trends in methodology to develop therapeutic contact lenses with polymeric vehicles and discusses the limitations including comparison to cosmetically tinted soft contact lenses.

Highlights

The eye is an elaborate and complex organ equipped with various anatomical and physiological drug penetration barriers, including the precorneal and corneal barriers, the conjunctival barriers, the blood–aqueous barrier, and the blood-retinal barrier [1,2]
This review aims to provide the details from prior reports and look at recent trends for drug-loaded colloidal polymeric nanoparticles and implants in therapeutic contact lenses as polymeric vehicles for ocular drug delivery in the platform of contact lenses
Polymers can be described as prospective vehicles for drug delivery because of their versatile properties including biocompatibility, bioavailability, and good mechanical properties

Summary

Introduction

The eye is an elaborate and complex organ equipped with various anatomical and physiological drug penetration barriers, including the precorneal and corneal barriers, the conjunctival barriers, the blood–aqueous barrier, and the blood-retinal barrier [1,2]. Topically administered eye drops are rapidly washed out into the nasolacrimal duct due to the fast turnover rate and restoration time of the tear film and are eliminated by conjunctival blood and lymphatic flow [4] For this reason, only 1–5% of the administered drug is absorbed into the target tissue [5] and the mathematically predicted bioavailability for drug delivery to the anterior chamber is less than 5% for lipophilic molecules and less than 0.5% for hydrophilic molecules [6]. Proper eye drop technique, which may affect the patients’ clinical outcomes, is not easy for most of the patients and may be a factor of the unexpected noncompliance [9] To remedy these drawbacks, drug-eluting or therapeutic contact lenses can be an excellent alternative for the treatment of eye diseases. Biodegradability by plasmin-mediated fibrinolysis pH-sensitive anionic copolymer having dissolving property in above pH 7.0

Drug-Loaded

Drug-Eluting Polymeric Implants in Therapeutic Contact Lenses

Current

Findings

Conclusions and Perspectives