Additive Manufacturing‐Enabled Anti‐Infective Inserts Against Ocular Viral Infections: Printing to Permeation

In this study, we developed an ocular insert through the semi‐solid extrusion (SSE) 3D printing of antiviral drug acyclovir‐loaded hydrogel ink prepared using a single matrix polymer, BonuCel H. Printing was optimized to achieve precise printing with dimensional accuracy. Furthermore, printing of ocular inserts was achieved using different infill patterns to tune the internal structure and its effect on the performance of the ocular insert was evaluated. All the ocular inserts exhibited hydrophilic nature with >500% swelling index. All the inserts released >80% drug within 12 h and followed Korsmeyer–Peppas model with R 2 > 0.98. All the ocular inserts exhibited excellent bioadhesive properties with bioadhesion force >200 mN. Ocular insert printed using line infill pattern showed the highest ex vivo transcorneal drug permeation (~118 μg/cm 2 ) with the highest transcorneal flux of 0.08 ± 0.0005 μg/cm 2 /min owing to its parallel strands providing efficient capillary pathways for fluid penetration as compared to compact and crossed strands of concentric and grid infill pattern. The developed ocular inserts were found hemocompatible with optimum corneal hydration, justifying their suitability for ocular drug delivery purposes.