Microbial Keratitis Sampling for Biomarker Discovery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Microbial Keratitis Sampling for Biomarker Discovery
IRAS ID
320296
Contact name
Naing Latt Tint
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Microbial keratitis (MK) is an infection of the cornea (the transparent window on the front of your eye) and is a leading cause of blindness globally with an incidence of >2m cases per year (particularly across Low and Middle Income Countries – LMICs), and a common acute eye disease in Edinburgh (~ 100 cases treated at the Princes Alexandra Eye Pavilion (PAEP) per year). MK is an “ophthalmic emergency” and even where gold-standard diagnostics and treatment are available, over 60% of MK patients are still left with visual impairment across LMICs, and >10% of patients require expensive and often unsuccessful surgical interventions such as corneal transplant. These permanent, debilitating outcomes are often attributed to an excessive and uncontrolled immune response (the way your body responds to infection), leading to scarring and corneal damage.
Even when gold-standard diagnostic tests are performed, the pathogen is only identified in ~50 % of cases so the eye doctor has to guess what is causing the infection and often prescribes antibiotics which may or may not work, and might contribute to the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Moreover, current diagnostic and treatment strategies do not consider the body’s own immune response and the way it is reacting to the infection.
We are seeking to better understand how the body’s immune system responds to infection of the cornea to be able to develop improved diagnostics and alternative treatment strategies which will hopefully improve patient outcomes. We propose to achieve this by studying the tears and the conjunctiva of those currently with, and without MK to identify biomarkers which can improve our understanding of the condition, and could be utilised to achieve these goals.
REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0145
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion