Improving sustained drug delivery from ophthalmic lens materials through the control of temperature and time of loading.

Although the possibility of using drug-loaded ophthalmic lens to promote sustained drug release has been thoroughly pursued, there are still problems to be solved associated to the different alternatives. In this work, we went back to the traditional method of drug loading by soaking in the drug solution and tried to optimize the release profiles by changing the temperature and the time of loading. Two materials commercially available under the names of CI26Y and Definitive 50 were chosen. CI26Y is used for intraocular lenses (IOLs) and Definitive 50 for soft contact lenses (SCLs). Three drugs were tested: an antibiotic, moxifloxacin, and two anti-inflammatories, diclofenac and ketorolac. Sustained drug release from CI26Y disks for, at least 15 days, was obtained for moxifloxacin and diclofenac increasing the loading temperature up to 60 °C or extending the loading time till two months. The sustained release of ketorolac was limited to about 8 days. In contrast, drug release from Definitive 50 disks could not be improved by changing the loading conditions. An attempt to interpret the impact of the loading conditions on the drug release behavior was done using solid-state NMR and differential scanning calorimetry. These studies suggested the establishment of reversible, endothermic interactions between CI26Y and the drugs, moxifloxacin and diclofenac. The loading temperature had a slight effect on the mechanical and optical properties of drug loaded CI26Y samples, which still kept adequate properties to be used as IOL materials. The in vivo efficacy of CI26Y samples, drug loaded at 60 °C for two weeks, was predicted using a simplified mathematical model to estimate the drug concentration in the aqueous humor. The estimated concentrations were found to comply with the therapeutic needs, at least, for moxifloxacin and diclofenac.