Molecularly imprinted soft contact lenses as chloramphenicol delivery systems

Abstract

Due to the fact that only a small part of the ophthalmic drugs, taken in traditional ways, reaches the affected area patients need to take large amounts of medication. This problem could be overcome by extending the duration of a drug's spent time on the eye surface. One of the most common eye infections is conjunctivitis, for which chloramphenicol is the most used medication. Because of their unique properties, hydrogels are used for contact lens production. The principal aim of this work is to develop a novel soft contact lenses material capable of sustained chloramphenicol delivery. The influence of different comonomers on hydrogels' characteristics was examined. Various hydrogels imprinted for chloramphenicol, based on poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate), were synthetized. The sorption and releasing kinetics were studied at conditions simulating the human eye. It was proven that 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate copolymer with methacrylic acid was the most efficient for releasing chloramphenicol, following the zero-order kinetics during a 24-hour period. This suggests that synthetized hydrogels present a promising solution to the problem of sustained chloramphenicol delivery.

Keywords

• soft contact lenses
• sustained drug delivery
• molecularly imprinted hydrogels
• conjunctivitis treatment