Biotech Values

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CEP Biomarker for AMD: A Possible Predictor of Disease


"Scientists at the Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute and Case Western Reserve University may have found biomarkers in blood for predicting a person's susceptibility to age-related macular degeneration (AMD)."
Scientists at the Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute and Case Western Reserve University may have found biomarkers in blood for predicting a person's susceptibility to age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The research team included Dr. John W. Crabb, recipient of the 2003 FFB Sandy & Tom Trudell Research Award for the Study of Retinal Degenerative Diseases, and Dr. Joe G. Hollyfield, member of the FFB Scientific Advisory Board.

An initial study in the laboratories of Drs. Crabb and Hollyfield at the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Robert Salomon at Case Western Reserve University, found that blood tests for what is known as "carboxyethylpyrrole (CEP) protein adducts," and also antibodies to CEP adducts, may be useful for helping to pinpoint patients who may be likely to develop AMD. A report of their biomarker study was published in the October 2003 issue of The Journal of Biological Chemistry (1).

CEP protein adducts are produced by oxidation of certain lipids (docosahexaenoate-containing lipids), which are abundant in the retina. The investigators previously reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that CEP protein adducts are more abundant in AMD than in normal donor eyes and are also present in drusen (2). Drusen, dense yellow deposits that sometime form under the retina, are considered risk factors for the development of AMD.

Using immunological tests, this research team has now found higher amounts of CEP protein adducts and anti-CEP antibodies in blood from people with AMD than in normal donors. The presence of these protein adducts and antibodies may have predictive value. Effective blood tests for early identification of people at risk for AMD will allow initiation of interventions that could prevent the disease or slow its progression to minimize the extent of vision loss.

The report supports other findings that implicate oxidative damage as a contributor to AMD. For example, epidemiological studies show that smoking, a known contributor to oxidative damage, increases the risk of AMD at least two-fold. The Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) study, which enrolled nearly 5,000 people with varying stages of AMD, demonstrated that antioxidant vitamins--to prevent oxidation--taken along with zinc could slow the progression of AMD in a significant number of people (3).

http://www.blindness.org/research.asp?id=196&type=2