Self-dissolving medical aids can heal external wounds or restore defective heart valves.
Now, using the body’s natural mechanisms, a Canadian-based research team has developed a similar concept to treat corneal abrasions.
A certain amount of the enzyme MMP-9 is found naturally in the eye. Released in quantities that are proportional to the wound’s size, it helps the cornea to heal.
But it also breaks down the team’s new collagen-based contact lenses. Antibiotics were added to the biomaterial so that the lens – which becomes activated at eye temperature – steadily secretes the agent at the same time as it degrades.
Treatment with conventional therapeutic lenses involves only a one-time application of antibiotics.
Scanning retinal tissue, meanwhile, can help unearth potential kidney damage.
