Dry eye and designer ophthalmics.
Expressed sequence tag (EST), proteomic, and antibody capture assays are revealing a level of tear film protein complexity far greater than previously appreciated. A systems biology approach will be needed to fully appreciate function as tear protein doses fluctuate in time through different conditions. Although consensus is growing on what fully constitutes the human tear proteome, questions remain about the source and significance of the approximately 256 tear proteins designated as "intracellular." Many of these may derive from normal cellular turnover and could therefore be informative. A further >183 are designated as "extracellular." Surprisingly, only 4 to 5% of these appear to be dysregulated in the three forms of dry eye preliminarily examined to date. Some differ and a couple overlap, suggesting that disease-specific signatures could be identified. Future dry eye treatment might include recombinant tear protein rescue as a personalized ophthalmic approach to ocular surface disease.
Laurie
Gordon W
GW
Department of Cell Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
Olsakovsky
Leslie A
LA
Conway
Brian P
BP
McKown
Robert L
RL
Kitagawa
Kazuko
K
Nichols
Jason J
JJ
D015198:Designer Drugs; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009883:Ophthalmic Solutions / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis / Q000502:physiology; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013666:Tears / Q000378:metabolism
D015198:Designer Drugs; D005136:Eye Proteins; D009883:Ophthalmic Solutions; D020543:Proteome; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C042434:tear proteins