Metabolomics and Age-Related Macular Degeneration
1
Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine (WWIEM), Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK
2
Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS), Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT9 6AG, UK
3
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA
4
Department of Ophthalmology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen 6525 EX, The Netherlands
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Membership of the Eye-Risk Consortium is provided in the Acknowledgment.
Metabolites 2019, 9(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo9010004
Received: 21 November 2018
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Revised: 17 December 2018
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Accepted: 20 December 2018
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Published: 27 December 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Neurodegenerative Disease)
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) leads to irreversible visual loss, therefore, early intervention is desirable, but due to its multifactorial nature, diagnosis of early disease might be challenging. Identification of early markers for disease development and progression is key for disease diagnosis. Suitable biomarkers can potentially provide opportunities for clinical intervention at a stage of the disease when irreversible changes are yet to take place. One of the most metabolically active tissues in the human body is the retina, making the use of hypothesis-free techniques, like metabolomics, to measure molecular changes in AMD appealing. Indeed, there is increasing evidence that metabolic dysfunction has an important role in the development and progression of AMD. Therefore, metabolomics appears to be an appropriate platform to investigate disease-associated biomarkers. In this review, we explored what is known about metabolic changes in the retina, in conjunction with the emerging literature in AMD metabolomics research. Methods for metabolic biomarker identification in the eye have also been discussed, including the use of tears, vitreous, and aqueous humor, as well as imaging methods, like fluorescence lifetime imaging, that could be translated into a clinical diagnostic tool with molecular level resolution.
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Keywords:
age-related macular degeneration; metabolomics; metabolism; biomarkers; drusen; retinal pigment epithelium
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
MDPI and ACS Style
Brown, C.N.; Green, B.D.; Thompson, R.B.; Den Hollander, A.I.; Lengyel, I.; On behalf of the EYE-RISK consortium. Metabolomics and Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Metabolites 2019, 9, 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo9010004
AMA Style
Brown CN, Green BD, Thompson RB, Den Hollander AI, Lengyel I, On behalf of the EYE-RISK consortium. Metabolomics and Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Metabolites. 2019; 9(1):4. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo9010004
Chicago/Turabian StyleBrown, Connor N., Brian D. Green, Richard B. Thompson, Anneke I. Den Hollander, Imre Lengyel, and On behalf of the EYE-RISK consortium. 2019. "Metabolomics and Age-Related Macular Degeneration" Metabolites 9, no. 1: 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo9010004
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