Vitreous Proteomics and Diabetic Retinopathy

Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy is the major cause of acquired blindness in working age adults. Studies of the vitreous proteome have provided insights into the etiology of diabetic retinopathy and suggested potential molecular targets for treatments. Further characterization of the protein changes associated with the progression of this disease may suggest additional therapeutic approaches as well as reveal novel factors that may be useful in predicting risk and functional outcomes of interventional therapies. This article provides an overview of the various techniques used for proteomic analysis of the vitreous and details results from studies evaluating vitreous of diabetic patients using the proteomic approach.

Diabetic Retinopathy: Battling the Global Epidemic

“…Total vitreous protein concentration is weakly associated with DME. 48 Cross-sectional studies comparing proteomic changes in the vitreous in different stages of DR will likely provide further information on disease pathogenesis and may lead to new treatment and diagnostic modalities. Treatment strategies may be based on downregulating proteins involved in disease progression and/or upregulating proteins with a protective function.…”

Proteomic Analysis of Vitreous Biopsy Techniques

“…Although other proteins may non-specifically bind albumin and become removed during the processing, it supports the observation that a large fraction of vitreous protein is made up of albumin, IgG, and a few other serum proteins. 4, 27, 28 Finally, after analyzing peptides on a highly sensitive and specific LC-MS/MS platform, we determined again that both techniques were very similar. Some quantitative differences in specific proteins were present, but no technique was favored over the other.…”

“…8 Recent advances in proteomic research facilitate the identification and quantification of the library of proteins present in the vitreous of diseased eyes. 4, 5 However, proteomic analyses are expensive and pilot studies are needed to establish optimum comparative techniques that may be used in larger clinical studies. Vitreous biopsies are frequently utilized in the clinical diagnosis and management of intravitreal infection, inflammation, and cancer.…”

Future opportunities in diabetic retinopathy research

“…Future work may use the power of vitreous proteomics to reveal molecular targets for therapy, 65 and yield personalized treatment based on the complexity of systemic and local pathophysiologic mechanisms in individual patients. 66 …”