A special issue of Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics highlights the latest research on matricellular proteins, which play a critical role in inflammation and blood vessel formation in the eye and therefore making them key targets for new therapies to treat common ocular disorders such as glaucoma, dry eye disease, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Comprehensive review articles and insightful editorials comprise this special issue of Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
The issue is available free on the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics website until October 30, 2015. Guest Editor Dr. Sharmila Masli, Boston University (MA) has brought together leading researchers and clinicians to contribute articles on a range of topics including the function of matricellular proteins and their role in eye disease, the link between thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), inflammation, and angiogenesis, and treatment approaches in development that specifically target TSP-1.
In the Review article "Thrombospondin-1 and Pathogenesis of Age-Related Macular Degeneration," Michael Housset and Florian Sennlaub, Institut de la Vision, CNRS, and INSERM, Paris, France, propose that the severely decreased levels of TSP-1 in eyes affected by AMD implicate a central role for TSP-1 in the development of the disease.
Marielle Terzulli, Laura Contreras Ruiz, Abirami Kugadas, Sharmilla Masli, and Mihaela Gadjeva, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Boston University, Boston, MA, analyzed the types and amounts of bacteria present in the eyes of mice that are TSP-1 deficient and serve as a model for the autoimmune disorder Sjögren's syndrome. The goal of the research presented in the article "TSP-1 Deficiency Alters Ocular Microbiota: Implications for Sjögren's Syndrome Pathogenesis" was to determine whether changes in the microbial population of the eye present a potential new therapeutic target for intervening during the early stages of the disease.
"Dr. Masli has done a masterful job of bringing together the world's experts in matricellular biology of the eye in this special issue," says Editor-in-Chief W. Daniel Stamer, PhD, Joseph A. C. Wadsworth Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC.