Matrix Metalloproteinase-Deactivating Contact Lens for Corneal Melting

Corneal melting is an uncontrolled, excessive degradation of cellular and extracellular components of the cornea. This potential cause of corneal blindness is caused by excessive expression of zinc-dependent matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and has no satisfying cure as of now. Herein, we introduce a novel therapeutic hydrogel which can be made into a contact lens to slow down the progression of corneal melting by deactivating MMPs. The hydrogel backbone is comprised of poly(2-hydroxyetyl methacrylate) (pHEMA), a main material for commercial contact lenses, and dipicolylamine (DPA) which has high affinity and selectivity towards zinc ion. Due to the high affinity towards zinc ions, the DPA-conjugated pHEMA (pDPA-HEMA) hydrogel selectively removes zinc ions from a physiological buffer and deactivates MMP-1, MMP-2 and MMP-9 within 2 hours. pDPA-HEMA hydrogel also effectively prevents degradation of porcine corneas by collagenase A, a zinc-dependent protease, whereas the corneas completely degrades within 15 hours when incubated with pHEMA hydrogel. The presence of pDPA-HEMA hydrogel does not affect the viability of keratocytes and corneal epithelial cells. Unlike the conventional MMP inhibitors (MMPi), the pDPA-HEMA hydrogel minimizes the risk of serious non-specific side effects, and provides a method to slow down the progression of corneal melting and other related ocular diseases.