Albumin/Hyaluronic Acid Nanoparticle‐Laden Contact Lenses for the Ocular Delivery of 5‐Fluorouracil

ABSTRACT Nanoparticle‐laden contact lenses are a formidable strategy for ocular drug delivery. However, incorporating nanoparticles to achieve sustained drug release without affecting the contact lenses' properties remains a challenging task. In this work, daily and monthly replacement silicone‐hydrogel contact lenses laden with bovine serum albumin/hyaluronic acid (BSA/HA) nanoparticles are presented. These nanoparticle‐laden contact lenses enable the sustained release of 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU) in mimetic physiological conditions. The nanoparticle‐laden contact lenses display properties similar to neat contact lenses, including refractive index, water content, UV/visible transmittance and chemical structure. Noteworthy attributes include the BSA/HA nanoparticles' low polydispersity, negative surface charge and a hydrodynamic size of ~210 nm, as well as the high nanoparticle loading efficiency (~ 30%) of the contact lenses. Thereby, the BSA/HA nanoparticles are a promising strategy for developing nanoparticle‐laden contact lenses for therapeutic applications, namely for sustained drug delivery.