Effect of Antimicrobial Contact Lenses on Corneal Infiltrative Events: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Parthasarathi Kalaiselvan*, Nagaraju Konda, Nending Pampi, Pravin Krishna Vaddavalli, Savitri Sharma, Fiona Stapleton, Naresh Kumar, Mark D. P. Willcox, Debarun Dutta

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Purpose: To determine whether Mel4-coated antimicrobial contact lenses (MACLs) can reduce the incidence of corneal infiltrative events (CIEs) during extended wear.

Methods: A prospective, randomized, double-masked, single-center, contralateral, extended contact lens wear clinical trial was conducted with 176 subjects. Each participant was randomly assigned to wear a MACL in one eye and an uncoated control contact lens in the contralateral eye or an extended-wear biweekly disposable modality for 3 months. The main outcome measures were the incidence of CIEs per 100 eye-months, identification of the microbial types colonizing the contact lenses or eyes at the time of the CIEs, and their susceptibility to Mel4.

Results: Nine participants (5.1%) experienced unilateral CIEs; six participants had contact lens acute red eye, and three participants had infiltrative keratitis. The incidence rate for CIEs (0.4 events per 100 participant months; 1.7%) in the Mel4-coated lenses (test) was 69% less than that of the control lenses (1.3 events per 100 participant months; 3.4%; P = 0.29). All Gram-negative bacteria isolated from lenses and lids of participants with CIEs (Citrobacter diversus, Acinetobacter haemolyticus, and Acinetobacter lwoffii) were susceptible to Mel4 peptide; minimum inhibitory concentrations ranged from 15.6 to 62.5 µg/mL. Reduction of adhesion of these bacteria by Mel4-coated lenses ranged from 2.1 to 2.2 log10 colony-forming units/lens.

Conclusions: MACLs had the capacity to reduce CIEs by at least 50% compared with uncoated control lenses during extended wear over 3 months; however, due to the relatively low rates of CIEs, the reduction was not statistically different compared with control lenses.

Translational Relevance: This study provides evidence that antimicrobial contact lenses have the potential to reduce the incidence of corneal infiltrative events during extended wear.
Original languageEnglish
Article number32
JournalTranslational Vision Science & Technology
Volume10
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Copyright 2021, The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Funding: Supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council development grant (APP1076206), by the Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, and by CooperVision, Inc.

Keywords

  • Antimicrobial peptide
  • Mel4 peptide
  • antimicrobial contact lenses
  • corneal infiltrative events
  • clinical trial
  • Antimicrobial contact lenses
  • Corneal infiltrative events
  • Clinical trial

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Effect of Antimicrobial Contact Lenses on Corneal Infiltrative Events: A Randomized Clinical Trial'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this