Glaucoma is an ophthalmic disease that is characterized by elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). Eye drops are the preferred choice to reduce IOP for the treatment of glaucoma. However, the bioavailability of eye drops is low (<5%). Their long‐term frequent administration cannot ensure patient compliance, which is the main reason for treatment failure. Inspired by lollipop, herein, a multilayered sodium alginate‐chitosan (SA‐CS) hydrogel ball (HB) decorated by zinc oxide‐modified biochar (ZnO‐BC) is developed as a new drug delivery system. The multilayer structure encapsulate timolol maleate (TM) and levofloxacin inside the different layers to realize the sustained release of drugs, which can control ocular hypertension and prevent infection effectively. The results show that the release of TM can be sustained in vitro for longer than 2 weeks. Moreover, IOP is also effectively reduced in vivo. Meanwhile, the photothermal conversion activity of ZnO‐BC can regulate drug release on demand after stimulation by near‐infrared irradiation. More importantly, the designed HB also shows good biocompatibility and antibacterial properties in vitro and in vivo. In summary, ZnO‐BC‐SA‐CS HB can effectively reduce IOP and is expected to replace the classical tedious eye drop strategy, having potential utilization value in the treatment of glaucoma.
Compared with traditional glasses, the comfortable and convenient contact lens (CL) has seen an upsurge among the public. However, due to the lack of antibacterial properties of ordinary CLs, the risk of eye infection is greatly increased accordingly. On the other hand, ordinary CLs also cannot effectively reduce the short‐wavelength blue light emitted from electronic products, such as mobile phones and computers. Aiming at the above two problems, zinc oxide (ZnO)/cyclized polyacrylonitrile (CPAN) composites are developed for CL modification. After loading with ZnO/CPAN (ZC), the CL shows a broad‐spectrum antibacterial property. Further experiments also prove that it can block UVB, UVA, as well as blue light selectively, under the premise of ensuring hydrophilicity and certain transparency. Theoretically, this ZC‐decorated CL can fundamentally reduce the damage to the eyes from harmful light emitted by light‐emitting diodes and the secretion of pro‐inflammatory factors, which is thus a promising eye protection strategy for modern society.
A new monoglyceride‐based heat‐sensitive substrate is proposed, for the first time, as a wound management system. First, an appropriate portion of glyceryl monooleate (GMO) and glyceryl monostearate (GMS) is mixed to provide a thermal phase responsive matrix (GMO‐GMS, GG). Subsequently, to improve the photothermal responsive and antibacterial performance, silver nanoparticles (Ag) decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite (rGO‐Ag) is added to the GG matrix to obtain (GG‐rGO‐Ag). According to the systematic studies from uninfected, infected, and diabetic wound models, by applying near infrared (NIR) laser, the phase change of GG‐rGO‐Ag can be triggered to release Ag on demand for sterilization. More importantly, this smart GG substrate can also promote the production of vascular endothelial growth factor protein, thus serving as a NIR defined mufti‐effective wound management system.
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