Grant: Project Grant

Ocular diseases affect vast numbers of the population and can drastically affect the quality of life that these patients, and their families, may have. An age-related ocular disease that is of particular importance is exfoliation syndrome (XFS). XFS is estimated to affect 60-70 million world-wide(although difficult to ascertain due to variability in accurate diagnosis). XFS correlates with glaucoma and is a cause for cataract formation. XFS is characterized by the formation of fibrillar materials, which are largely insoluble protein/protein fragments that are not removed through normal regulatory processes involved in ocular homeostasis. It is hypothesized that strategies for treating this disease hinges upon the ability to target the exfoliated materials observed in cases of XFS. Phage display techniques are a powerful methodology for the identification of peptide structures that can be used to target a wide variety of materials. That said, there are no known existing publications that explore a strategy for the identification of peptides for binding XFS materials; this is even more surprising when considering that some postulate that XFS is a systemic disease as exfoliation-like fibrils have been observed in multiple organs. Thus, it is the primary goal of this study to apply phage display techniques for the identification of peptides that bind to exfoliated materials associated with XFS using human anterior lens capsules. Subsequently, the second aim of this research is the in vivo analysis of these materials and how they affect the anterior segment eye structures upon magnetic field application. With these two pieces of information, subsequent treatment regimens may be hypothesized.