Lab‐on‐a‐Contact Lens: Recent Advances and Future Opportunities in Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Abstract

The eye is one of the most complex organs in the human body, containing rich and critical physiological information (e.g., intraocular pressure, corneal temperature, and pH) as well as a library of metabolite biomarkers (e.g., glucose, proteins, and specific ions). Smart contact lenses (SCLs) can serve as a wearable intelligent ocular prosthetic device capable of noninvasive and continuous monitoring of various essential physical/biochemical parameters and drug loading/delivery for the treatment of ocular diseases. Advances in SCL technologies and the growing public interest in personalized health are accelerating SCL research more than ever before. Here, we discussed the current status and potential of SCL development through This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. a comprehensive review from fabrication to applications to commercialization. First, we discuss the material, fabrication, and platform designs of the SCLs for the diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Then, we review the latest advances in diagnostic and therapeutic SCLs for clinical translation. Later, we summarize the established techniques for wearable power transfer and wireless data transmission applied to current SCL devices. We also provide an outlook, future opportunities, and challenges for developing next-generation SCL devices. With the rise in interest of SCL development, this comprehensive and essential review can serve as a new paradigm for the SCL devices.

A Microchambers Containing Contact Lens for the Noninvasive Detection of Tear Exosomes

“…PHEMA-containing CL has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. [48,67] During the design and construction of the ACSM-PCL, several features were integrated to ensure maximum wearing safety, for example, chambers with slanted walls to minimize sharp edges, and only the bottom of the chambers were chemically modified. However, to ensure the modification process and ACSM-PCL is safe for the eye, a biocompatibility assay was performed using NIH/3T3 cell line.…”

“…Previous reports have demonstrated that CL biosensors can noninvasively monitor pH, ions, and biomolecules with high precision and good efficiency in tears. [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] Previous CL biosensors were reported as a diagnostic tool for various ocular diseases. [24,40,41] Among the diverse materials used to fabricate CLs, poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)(PHEMA) has been adopted as a CL material due to its superb mechanical property, excellent optical clarity, and biocompatibility.…”

“…[24,40,41] Among the diverse materials used to fabricate CLs, poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)(PHEMA) has been adopted as a CL material due to its superb mechanical property, excellent optical clarity, and biocompatibility. [36,37,42] Antibodies were utilized to detect exosomes due to their high specificity toward their cognate antigen. [43][44][45] In addition, depending on the antigens, antibodies can be easily sourced through commercial channels.…”

“…[35,46,47] Though the established covalent bond between the integrated metals and antibodies is robust, incorporating metallic or nanocarbon elements requires a clean-room facility, which increases their fabrication cost . [48] Fortunately, chemical surface modification techniques for CLs have reached maturity, specifically, organosiloxane molecules are of interest. The Si-O back bone of the organosiloxane molecule can form stable covalent bonding with any surface presented with OH moieties.…”

Wireless Non‐Invasive Monitoring of Cholesterol Using a Smart Contact Lens

“…[ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ] Therefore, the contact lens platform has emerged as a promising non‐invasive healthcare system in recent years due to its good wearability, portability, and consistent contact with the tear fluid. [ 22 , 23 , 24 ] For example, to date, smart contact lenses (SCLs) have been developed mainly for the diagnosis of glaucoma, diabetes, and stress by measuring intraocular pressure, glucose, and cortisol. [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ] In addition, the utilization of such SCL devices should be expanded further for diverse diagnostic applications and the detection of various biomarkers in tear fluids.…”