Issue 39, 2021

Hydrogels containing water soluble conjugates of silver(i) ions with amino acids, metabolites or natural products for non infectious contact lenses

Abstract

The poor handling and hygiene practices of contact lenses are the key reasons for their frequent contamination, and are responsible for developing ocular complications, such as microbial keratitis (MK). Thus there is a strong demand for the development of biomaterials of which contact lenses are made, combined with antimicrobial agents. For this purpose, the known water soluble silver(I) covalent polymers of glycine (GlyH), urea (U) and the salicylic acid (SalH2) of formulae [Ag3(Gly)2NO3]n (AGGLY), [Ag(U)NO3]n (AGU), and dimeric [Ag(salH)]2 (AGSAL) were used. Water solutions of AGGLY, AGU and AGSAL were dispersed in polymeric hydrogels using hydroxyethyl-methacrylate (HEMA) to form the biomaterials pHEMA@AGGLY-2, pHEMA@AGU-2, and pHEMA@AGSAL-2. The biomaterials were characterized by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), differential scanning calorimetry (DTG/DSC), attenuated total reflection spectroscopy (FT-IR-ATR) and single crystal diffraction analysis. The antibacterial activity of AGGLY, AGU, AGSAL, pHEMA@AGGLY-2, pHEMA@AGU-2 and pHEMA@AGSAL-2 was evaluated against the Gram negative species Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and Gram positive ones Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), which mainly colonize in contact lenses. The in vitro toxicity of the biomaterials and their ingredients was evaluated against normal human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) whereas the in vitro genotoxicity was evaluated by the micronucleus (MN) assay in HCECs. The Artemia salina and Allium cepa models were applied for the evaluation of in vivo toxicity and genotoxicity of the materials. Following our studies, the new biomaterials pHEMA@AGGLY-2, pHEMA@AGU-2, and pHEMA@AGSAL-2 are suggested as efficient candidates for the development of antimicrobial contact lenses.

Graphical abstract: Hydrogels containing water soluble conjugates of silver(i) ions with amino acids, metabolites or natural products for non infectious contact lenses

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 iyn 2021
Accepted
11 avq 2021
First published
11 avq 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Dalton Trans., 2021,50, 13712-13727

Hydrogels containing water soluble conjugates of silver(I) ions with amino acids, metabolites or natural products for non infectious contact lenses

C. N. Banti, M. Kapetana, C. Papachristodoulou, C. P. Raptopoulou, V. Psycharis, P. Zoumpoulakis, T. Mavromoustakos and S. K. Hadjikakou, Dalton Trans., 2021, 50, 13712 DOI: 10.1039/D1DT02158C

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