Interleukin-8 Promoter Polymorphism −251 A/T and Treatment Response in Neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration

Abstract

Purpose

Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a potent pro-angiogenic and pro-inflammatory chemokine, suggested to hold a role in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). Our aim is to study the association of the single-nucleotide polymorphism −251 A/T (rs4073) in the IL-8 promoter region with the treatment response to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections in nAMD.

Patients and Methods

This is a prospective study of treatment-naïve patients with nAMD. Treatment response after a loading dose of three intravitreal anti-VEGF injections was defined as functional response based on change in visual acuity, and morphological response based on change in central retinal thickness (CRT) and intraretinal fluid on optical coherence tomography. Morphological response was categorized in good, partial, and poor responders. Blood DNA was analyzed for −251 A/T genotype.

Results

The IL-8 promoter polymorphism −251 A/T was not significantly associated to functional treatment response (P=0.09). No significant association was found between genotype and morphological treatment response (P=0.799). Older age was significantly associated to good morphological responders compared to partial and poor responders (P=0.014).

Conclusion

The IL-8 polymorphism −251 A/T is not associated to morphological nor functional treatment response to intravitreal anti-VEGF injections in patients with nAMD.

Keywords:

• anti-VEGF
• IL-8
• rs4073
• single-nucleotide polymorphism
• treatment response
• age-related macular degeneration

Abbreviations

BCVA, best-corrected visual acuity; CRT, central retinal thickness; ETDRS, Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study; IL-8, interleukin-8; nAMD, neovascular age-related macular degeneration; OCT, optical coherence tomography; SNP, single-nucleotide polymorphism.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Velux Foundation (00024226, Søborg, Denmark) and Region Zealand PhD Grant (R29-A1337, Sorø, Denmark). The funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of this research.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.