A new marker for AMD
A new marker for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Eotaxin-2
Role of Eotaxin–CCR3 was reported in choroidal neovascularization (CNV) development in recent studies. It was documented to be better than vascular endothelial growth factor-A treatment when tested in CNV animals. Due to lack of studies on the role of eotaxin in the human age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients, we sought to determine whether eotaxin-2 (CCL24) has any association with inflammatory processes that occur in CNV.
CCL24 levels were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) after normalization to total serum protein and levels of ELISA were correlated to various risk factors in about 133 AMD patients and 80 healthy controls.
The CCL24 levels were found to be significantly higher in wet AMD patients as compared with dry AMD and normal controls. Further the difference between dry and wet AMD patients (i.e., minimally classic, predominantly classic, and occult) was also significant. We also report significant difference in the CCL24 levels of Avastin-treated and untreated AMD patients. This study shows that CCL24 levels were found to be significantly increased in AMD patients despite Avastin treatment as compared with normal controls and those without Avastin, indicating that CCL24 may have an association with CNV and may be an important target to validate future therapeutic approaches in AMD in tandem with Avastin treatment.
Sharma N K, Prabhakar S, Gupta A, Singh R, Gupta P K, Gupta P K, and Anand A. New Biomarker for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Eotaxin-2.DNA and Cell Biology. 2012; 31:1618-1627