“Liquid biopsy” is the name of the method used by the team led by doctor Vinit B. Mahajan. What’s behind the complicated word is essentially a pretty simple idea: you take fluid from an organ, in this case the eye, and then analyze its components. It turns out that there is a lot of information specifically in the proteins of the so-called aqueous humor (located between the cornea and the iris).
Researchers from the USA and Denmark found almost 6,000 proteins there. And his condition apparently provides information about the development of eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, a disease of the retina. ‘
Fights organ aging
The team had help in evaluating artificial intelligence (AI). This is not the first time machine learning has been used in ophthalmology. Also in September, a team from University College London demonstrated that AI can detect diseases in the back of the eye.
Early detection of eye diseases in the organ’s tissue fluid is just part of the current study published in the journal “Cell”. The proteins also show, in general, what the biological age of the eye is – in extreme cases, it can be up to 30 years above the person’s official age, as experiments show.
“Our results demonstrate that organs age at different rates,” says study author Julian Wolf. The use of anti-aging medications may be useful here to compensate for deficits, says the Stanford University ophthalmologist.
Early detection of Parkinson’s disease
The third and perhaps most spectacular result of the study: Mahajn, Wolf and their team were also able to detect a possible (early) Parkinson’s disease using the proteins. Typically, these proteins are only available post-mortem – which is one reason why Parkinson’s is difficult to diagnose. Mahajan assumes that this approach would allow important time to be gained to initiate therapies before the onset of the disease.
The research approach is not yet exhausted, as the authors write. In principle, similar information could also be obtained from completely different body fluids and organs, for example from urine, joints and, last but not least, cerebrospinal fluid. .