Two-dimensional ultrathin Ti3C2 MXene nanosheets coated intraocular lens for synergistic photothermal and NIR-controllable rapamycin releasing therapy against posterior capsule opacification

Abstract

Posterior capsule opacification (PCO) is one of the most frequent late-onset complications after cataract surgery. Several kinds of drug-eluting intraocular lenses (IOL) were designed for sustainable drug release to suppress ocular inflammation, the proliferation of lens epithelial cells (LECs) and the development of PCO after cataract surgery. Despite previous advances in this field, the drug-loaded IOLs were limited in ocular toxicity, insufficient drug-loading capacity, and short release time. To prevent PCO and to address these drawbacks, a novel drug-loaded IOL (Rapa@Ti3C2-IOL), prepared from two-dimensional ultrathin Ti3C2 MXene nanosheets and rapamycin (Rapa), was fabricated with a two-step spin coating method in this study. Rapa@Ti3C2 was prepared via electrostatic self-assembly of Ti3C2 and Rapa, with a loading capacity of Rapa at 92%. Ti3C2 was used as a drug delivery reservoir of Rapa. Rapa@Ti3C2-IOL was designed to have the synergistic photothermal and near infrared (NIR)-controllable drug release property. As a result, Rapa@Ti3C2-IOL exhibited the advantages of simple preparation, high light transmittance, excellent photothermal conversion capacity, and NIR-controllable drug release behavior. The Rapa@Ti3C2 coating effectively eliminated the LECs around Rapa@Ti3C2-IOL under a mild 808-nm NIR laser irradiation (1.0 W/cm−2). Moreover, NIR-controllable Rapa release inhibited the migration of LECs and suppressed the inflammatory response after photothermal therapy in vitro. Then, Rapa@Ti3C2-IOL was implanted into chinchilla rabbit eyes, and the effectiveness and biocompatibility to prevent PCO were evaluated for 4 weeks. The Rapa@Ti3C2-IOL implant exhibited excellent PCO prevention ability with the assistance of NIR irradiation and no obvious pathological damage was observed in surrounding healthy tissues. In summary, the present study offers a promising strategy for preventing PCO via ultrathin Ti3C2 MXene nanosheet-based IOLs with synergistic photothermal and NIR-controllable Rapa release properties.

MXene nanomaterials in biomedicine: A bibliometric perspective

“…As a new type of 2D nanomaterial, MXene inherits many advantages of common 2D materials, including large specific surface area and excellent electronic, mechanical, and physicochemical properties ( Huang et al, 2020 ). Besides these properties, researchers have found additional characteristics of MXene that make them appropriate for biomedical applications: 1) at the surface of MXene, there are many functional groups, such as hydroxyl, oxygen or fluorine; this allows researchers to load different substances on the surface of MXene, such as various drugs and hydrophilic macromolecules ( Guo et al, 2022 ; Ye et al, 2022 ; Yu et al, 2022 ); 2) unlike hydrophobic nanomaterials such as graphene, MXene is hydrophilic, which makes it biocompatible ( Klimkevicius et al, 2022 ; Perumal et al, 2022 ); 3) MXene exhibits the characteristics of near-infrared absorption (NIR), which enables its application in photothermal therapy (PTT) and photoacoustic imaging (PTA) fields ( Huang et al, 2020 ). Based on the abovementioned excellent properties of MXene, researchers have used it in various fields such as microbiology, oncology, and tissue engineering ( Du et al, 2022 ; Murali et al, 2021 ; Zhang Z. et al, 2022b ).…”

Efficient photothermal conversion of MXenes and their application in biomedicine

“…Precise drug delivery is important for targeted therapy. Ye et al 151 prepared two-dimensional ultrathin Ti 3 C 2 -MXene nanosheets and rapamycin (Rapa) by a two-step spin-coating method. Rapa@Ti 3 C 2 was prepared by electrostatic self-assembly of Ti 3 C 2 and Rapa, with a Rapa loading capacity of 92%.…”

Clinical Translation of Long-Acting Drug Delivery Systems for Posterior Capsule Opacification Prophylaxis

“…Those DDSs can be designed for stimuli-responsive controlled drug release, such as external near-infrared (NIR) light, and for loading versatile drugs (e.g., anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, chemotherapeutic drugs and mRNA for gene therapy). The data presented in Table 2 [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] were selected from the literature based on the following criteria: (1) pharmacological agents(s) were loaded within the DDS for PCO prevention and (2) data describing the measurement of drug release were available. Table 2 details…”

“…The specific fabrication strategies are outlined in Figure 2B. Most IOLs coated with drug-loaded nanocarriers are prepared with a single layer, using one of several different methods [37][38][39][40]. Mao et al fabricated BP-DOX@IOL by integration of doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded black phosphorus nanosheets onto the non-optical section of the IOL via facial activation-immersion.…”