Author: Christina Korb (Germany)
Co-authors: Sabine Beck, Norbert Pfeiffer, Franz Grus
Purpose
To assess the serum autoantibody profile in patients with dry and exsudative age-related macular degeneration compared with healthy volunteers to detect potential biomarkers, e.g. markers for progression of the disease.
Setting/Venue
Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center, Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.
Methods
IgG Immunreactivities were compared in patients suffering from dry AMD (n=20), patients with treatment-naive exsudative AMD (n=29), patients with previously treated exsudative AMD and new activity (n=21) and healthy volunteers (n=21). Serum was analysed by customized antigen microarrays containing 61 antigens. The statistical analysis was performed by univariate and multivariate analysis of variance, predictive data-mining methods and artificial neuronal networks were used to detect specific autoantibody patterns.
Results
The immunoreactivities of dry and wet AMD patients were significantly different from each other and from controls. One of the most prominently changed reactivity was against alpha-synuclein (p≤0,0034), which is known from other neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, reactivities against heat-shock-protein 10 (p≤0,071), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphat-dehydrogenase (p≤0,031) and Annexin V (p≤0,034), which plays a major role in apoptotic processes, were significantly changed. Some immunoreacitvities were antithetic regulated in wet and dry-AMD, such as Vesicle transport-related protein (VTI-B).
Conlusions
Comparison of autoantibody profiles in patients with dry and wet AMD revealed significantly altered immunreactivities against proteins particularly found in immunological diseases, further neurodegenerative, apoptotic and autoimmune markers could be observed. A validation study has to explore if these antibody pattern can help to understand the underlying differences in pathogenesis, evaluate their prognostic value and if those could be possibly useful as additional therapeutic targets.
Financial Disclosure
none
Comments
-
