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Wireless phototherapeutic contact lenses and glasses with red light-emitting diodes

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Abstract

Light-mediated therapeutics have attracted considerable attention as a method for the treatment of ophthalmologic diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration, because of their non-invasiveness and the effectiveness to ameliorate the oxidative stress of retinal cells. However, the current phototherapeutic devices are opaque, bulky, and tethered forms, so they are not feasible for use in continuous treatment during the patient’s daily life. Herein, we report wireless, wearable phototherapeutic devices with red light-emitting diodes for continuous treatments. Red light-emitting diodes were formed to be conformal to three-dimensional surfaces of glasses and contact lenses. Furthermore, fabricated light-emitting diodes had either transparency or a miniaturized size so that the user’s view is not obstructed. Also, these devices were operated wirelessly with control of the light intensity. In addition, in-vitro and in-vivo tests using human retinal epithelial cells and a live rabbit demonstrated the effectiveness and reliable operation as phototherapeutic devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science & ICT (MSIT) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of Korea through the National Research Foundation (2019R1A2B5B03069358 and 2016R1A5A1009926), the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program (2018M3A9F1021649), the Nano Material Technology Development Program (2015M3A7B4050308 and 2016M3A7B4910635), and the Industrial Technology Innovation Program (10080577). Also, the authors thank financial support by the Institute for Basic Science (IBS-R026-D1) and the Research Program (2018-22-0194) funded by Yonsei University. All in-vivo studies were conducted according to the guidelines of the National Institutes of Health for care and use of laboratory animals and with the approval of the Institute of Animal Care and Use Committee of UNIST (UNISTIACUC-16-19).

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  1. Young-Geun Park and Eunkyung Cha contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nano Science Technology Institute, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea

    Young-Geun Park, Eunkyung Cha, Hyeon Seok An & Jang-Ung Park

  2. Center for Nanomedicine, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea

    Young-Geun Park, Eunkyung Cha, Hyeon Seok An & Jang-Ung Park

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41944, Republic of Korea

    Kyoung-Pil Lee & Hong Kyun Kim

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea

    Myoung Hoon Song

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  1. Young-Geun Park
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Correspondence to Hong Kyun Kim or Jang-Ung Park.

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Wireless phototherapeutic contact lenses and glasses with red light-emitting diodes

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Park, YG., Cha, E., An, H.S. et al. Wireless phototherapeutic contact lenses and glasses with red light-emitting diodes. Nano Res. 13, 1347–1353 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2595-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2595-1

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