Antioxidant Carbon Dots Nanozyme Loaded in Thermosensitive in situ Hydrogel System for Efficient Dry Eye Disease Treatment

Abstract

Purpose

Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial ocular surface disease with a rising incidence. Therefore, it is urgent to construct a reliable and efficient drug delivery system for DED treatment.

Methods

In this work, we loaded C-dots nanozyme into a thermosensitive in situ gel to create C-dots@Gel, presenting a promising composite ocular drug delivery system to manage DED.

Results

This composite ocular drug delivery system (C-dots@Gel) demonstrated the ability to enhance adherence to the corneal surface and extend the ocular surface retention time, thereby enhancing bioavailability. Furthermore, no discernible ocular surface irritation or systemic toxicity was observed. In the DED mouse model induced by benzalkonium chloride (BAC), it was verified that C-dots@Gel effectively mitigated DED by stabilizing the tear film, prolonging tear secretion, repairing corneal surface damage, and augmenting the population of conjunctival goblet cells.

Conclusion

Compared to conventional dosage forms (C-dots), the C-dots@Gel could prolong exhibited enhanced retention time on the ocular surface and increased bioavailability, resulting in a satisfactory therapeutic outcome for DED.

Keywords:

• dry eye disease
• carbon dots nanozyme
• thermosensitive in situ gel
• composite ocular drug delivery system

Acknowledgments

We thank Feng Wu at the Biomedical Experimental Center of Xi’an Jiaotong University for their assistance with the histological stain.

Disclosure

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Shaanxi Province Key Research and Development Plan (2022SF-404), the Project of Xi’an Science and Technology Plan (23YXYJ0010), and the National Science Foundation of Shaanxi (2023-JC-QN-081).