Predicting long-lasting pain from LASIK with tear proteins

PressPacs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Tear Proteins Altered in Patients with Persistent Eye Pain after Refractive Surgery: Biomarker Candidate Discovery”
Journal of Proteome Research

Surgeons can correct some vision problems by altering the eye so it better focuses light. While these procedures, which include laser procedures, are generally quite safe, some people experience pain long afterward. In a new study in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research, researchers linked changes in proteins in patients’ tears with pain months after surgery. The analysis suggests that shifts in the amounts of certain groups of proteins could one day identify at-risk persons. 

A photo of a surgeon operating on an eye.
Researchers have linked long-lasting pain after laser eye surgery to patterns of changes in tear proteins.
DS Tkachuk/Shutterstock.com

When the eye fails to properly focus light on the sensory cells of the retina, poor vision results. In laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), surgeons use a laser to change the path of light as it travels toward the retina by altering the shape of the cornea, the eye’s transparent covering. Pain is common in the initial days after the procedure, but sometimes it can persist longer. Researchers suspect such long-lasting pain may be related to changes in the environment immediately surrounding the corneal nerves, including in the tears that moisten the eye. Sue Aicher, Brooke Harkness, Anat Galor and colleagues decided to comprehensively survey tear proteins in search of potential predictors of post-operative eye pain.

The team began by recruiting people scheduled to have LASIK or PRK on both eyes at clinics in Portland, Oregon, and Miami. The team focused their analysis on tears from 16 patients who reported a pain level of at least three out of 10 three months after surgery and 32 patients who reported no post-operative pain after three months.

The researchers identified a collection of 2,748 proteins in tears from all the participants before surgery, the day after and three months after surgery. When the team compared protein profiles for the two groups of patients, they homed in on 83 proteins whose levels shifted up or down among the patients with post-operative pain. Using statistical tools, Aicher’s team then tested whether individual proteins or sets of proteins could predict if eye-surgery patients would experience long-term pain. The computer models using sets of three or four proteins appeared to be the most effective at predicting long-term discomfort. Such patterns of differences in proteins, say the researchers, could someday be used to evaluate patients’ risk of post-surgical eye pain and find new routes to treat it.

The authors acknowledge funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute.

###

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, e-books and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Registered journalists can subscribe to the ACS journalist news portal on EurekAlert! to access embargoed and public science press releases. For media inquiries, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note: ACS does not conduct research but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies.

Media Contact

ACS Newsroom
newsroom@acs.org

Related Content