“Kill-release” antibacterial polysaccharides multilayer coating based therapeutic contact lens for effective bacterial keratitis treatment

Contact lenses (CLs) are an important medical device for ophthalmic disease treatment. They can be used not only to correct refractive errors, such as myopia, but also can serve as a drug carrier for ocular surface disease treatment. In this study, a therapeutic CL was designed for bacterial keratitis treatment by constructing an antibacterial surface coating via a layer-by-layer (LbL) electrostatic self-assembly method. Vancomycin-incorporated chitosan nanoparticles were firstly prepared by ionic condensation of sodium tripolyphosphate (abbreviated as CTVNP). The positively charged CTVNP were then used for LbL deposition with negatively charged heparin (HEP), obtaining a (HEP/CTVNP)n polyelectrolyte multilayer on the CL surface. It is shown that such antibiotic incorporated surface coating doesn't influence the light transmittance of the CL, so it should not affect the patients' visual acuity when wearing them. The in vitro bacteriostatic effect evaluation was performed via live and dead bacteria staining and scanning electron microscope (SEM), which demonstrated the effective antibacterial property of such a surface. The fabricated therapeutic CL was then used to treat bacterial keratitis on a rabbit model. The results showed that such CL could effectively control the development of the bacteria-infected cornea and had a significant therapeutic effect.