Drug-eluting contact lens containing cyclosporine-loaded cholesterol-hyaluronate micelles for dry eye syndrome.

A contact lens is an attractive tool for the delivery of ophthalmic drugs, but it has several issues such as the burst release of drugs and the limited drug loading capacity. To overcome these limitations, we developed a cholesterol-hyaluronate (C-HA) micelle-embedded contact lens for efficient hydrophobic drug loading and long-term controlled drug delivery. The contact lens was fabricated photopolymerization of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) using ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as a cross-linker.