Tears show inflammation

Salvisberg C, Tajouri N, Hainard A, Burkhard PR, Lalive PH, Turck N.Exploring the human tear fluid: discovery of new biomarkers in multiple sclerosis. Proteomics Clin Appl. 2014 Jan 31.


PURPOSE: Multiple sclerosis is the first cause of progressive neurological disability among young adults living in Western countries. Its diagnosis is mostly based on clinical evaluation, neuroimaging and in some cases cerebrospinal fluid analysis but no definitive diagnostic test exists. We proposed here that the exploration of tears from multiple sclerosis patients could lead to the discovery of new biomarkers.EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN:Thirty multiple sclerosis patients (20% men) recruited to the Geneva University Hospitals were included in our study (mean age ± SD (years): 42.4 ± 15.9). Twenty five control patients (32% men) were also enrolled (mean age ± SD (years): 42.7 ± 15.1). Tears, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or blood was collected for each patient. Three independent quantitative (tandem mass tag, TMT) experiments were carried out between tears from multiple sclerosis and control patients. Protein verification was performed by western blot on tears and CSF and by ELISA on serum samples.
RESULTS:Combined proteomics analyses provided 185 identified tear proteins. Among the differential proteins, alpha-1 antichymotrypsin was the only one to be significantly increased in the 3 experiments with similar ratios (ratios 1.6 to 2.5, p<0.05). Its tear, CSF and serum elevation were further confirmed by western blot and ELISA, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE:This study supports the concept that modifications of the tear proteome can reflect biological abnormalities associated with multiple sclerosis and perhaps other inflammatory conditions affecting the CNS. In addition, alpha-1-anti-chymotrypsin elevation in tear fluid emerges as a promising biomarker for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
In tears they found a protein alpha-1-anti-chymotrypsin in MS is this marker of MS. Well this protein is a marker of inflammation. So the question would be if they looked in other inflammatory conditions would it show in their eyes...

If you tested my tears now they would be full of..... disappointment 

Why?

Our Trial on Autoimmune Tolerance Induction 
has been Terminated

Why?Not enough recruitment and changing landscape since the study was planned

What Next?- The drawing board 

What was it? You'll have to wait until it is written up

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