An Ocular Protein Triad Can Classify Four Complex Retinal Diseases

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 41595
• Main Authors: Kuiper, J. J. W., Beretta, L., Nierkens, S., van Leeuwen, R., ten Dam-van Loon, N. H., Ossewaarde-van Norel, J., Bartels, M. C., de Groot-Mijnes, J. D. F., Schellekens, P., de Boer, J. H., Radstake, T. R. D. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 27.01.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/114/2413; 631/250/127; 82; 82/47; 82/79; Adult; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Algorithms; Angiotensin; Aqueous Humor - metabolism; Biomarkers; Clinical Decision-Making; Cluster Analysis; Computational Biology - methods; Decision making; Eye Proteins - metabolism; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Interleukin 21; Lymphoma; Macular degeneration; Male; Medical personnel; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Peptidyl-dipeptidase A; Proteome; Proteomics - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Retina; Retinal Diseases - diagnosis; Retinal Diseases - metabolism; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensitivity and Specificity; Uveitis
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep41595

Retinal diseases generally are vision-threatening conditions that warrant appropriate clinical decision-making which currently solely dependents upon extensive clinical screening by specialized ophthalmologists. In the era where molecular assessment has improved dramatically, we aimed at the identification of biomarkers in 175 ocular fluids to classify four archetypical ocular conditions affecting the retina (age-related macular degeneration, idiopathic non-infectious uveitis, primary vitreoretinal lymphoma, and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment) with one single test. Unsupervised clustering of ocular proteins revealed a classification strikingly similar to the clinical phenotypes of each disease group studied. We developed and independently validated a parsimonious model based merely on three proteins; interleukin (IL)-10, IL-21, and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) that could correctly classify patients with an overall accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of respectively, 86.7%, 79.4% and 92.5%. Here, we provide proof-of-concept for molecular profiling as a diagnostic aid for ophthalmologists in the care for patients with retinal conditions.