Research and Development Division, Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan.
Research and Development Division, Santen Inc., Emeryville, CA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Aug 19;14(8):e0220887. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220887. eCollection 2019.
Geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is characterized by irreversible loss of macular retinal tissue and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. Several studies have revealed that accumulation of Alu RNA in RPE cell causes RPE cell degeneration in AMD. In the present study, systemic Alu RNA expression levels were determined in 33 subjects with GA and 40 control subjects using a proprietary Alu RNA quantification method. It was observed that the expression level of Alu RNA was not significantly different between GA and Control groups (median = 21.3 in both GA and Control groups, P = 0.251). In addition, the systemic level of Alu RNA was not associated with subject characteristics, such as GA lesion size and SNP profiles of complement factors associated with increased risk of AMD. In conclusion, the usability of systemic Alu RNA expression level as a biomarker of GA secondary to AMD could not be established in this study.
与年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）相关的地图状萎缩（GA）的特征是黄斑视网膜组织和视网膜色素上皮（RPE）细胞的不可逆转损失。几项研究表明，RPE 细胞中 Alu RNA 的积累导致 AMD 中的 RPE 细胞变性。在本研究中，使用专有的 Alu RNA 定量方法，在 33 名 GA 患者和 40 名对照受试者中测定了系统 Alu RNA 表达水平。观察到 Alu RNA 的表达水平在 GA 和对照组之间没有显着差异（GA 和对照组的中位数均为 21.3，P = 0.251）。此外，Alu RNA 的系统水平与 GA 病变大小等受试者特征以及与 AMD 风险增加相关的补体因子的 SNP 谱均无关。总之，本研究未能确定系统 Alu RNA 表达水平作为 AMD 相关性 GA 的生物标志物的可用性。
