Congcong Yan, Quanyong Yi, Lina Ge, Ying Huang, Chun Yang, Bing Lin, Dan Jiang, Meng Zhou
{"title":"Metabolomics analysis uncovers metabolic changes and remodeling of anti-VEGF therapy on macular edema.","authors":"Congcong Yan, Quanyong Yi, Lina Ge, Ying Huang, Chun Yang, Bing Lin, Dan Jiang, Meng Zhou","doi":"10.1186/s40662-025-00444-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Anti-angiogenic therapy with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) is currently the first-line treatment for macular edema (ME), but the specific metabolic changes in the aqueous humor (AH) after intravitreal anti-VEGF injections remain poorly understood.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 120 AH samples from 60 ME patients before and after anti-VEGF treatment were collected from the ophthalmology clinic and ward of the Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. Non-targeted metabolomics analysis of the AH samples was performed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was used to identify metabolite differences before and after anti-VEGF treatment in patients with different ME etiologies.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Distinct metabolomic profiles were observed between pre- and post-treatment samples. A total of 145 significantly altered metabolites were identified after anti-VEGF treatment, with 84 upregulated metabolites related to carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, and 61 downregulated metabolites involved in amino acid metabolism. Both common and etiology-specific metabolic alterations were observed. In age-related macular degeneration (AMD)-ME, treatment-induced metabolic changes mainly involved amino acid metabolism, whereas in branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO)-ME, lipid metabolism was primarily affected. Diabetic macular edema (DME) patients showed more complex metabolic alterations, involving amino acid, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Intravitreal anti-VEGF injections significantly alter AH metabolites in ME patients. These findings provide insight into underlying metabolic processes in ME pathogenesis and treatment efficacy.</p>","PeriodicalId":12194,"journal":{"name":"Eye and Vision","volume":"12 1","pages":"28"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12257654/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Eye and Vision","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40662-025-00444-2","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"OPHTHALMOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Anti-angiogenic therapy with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) is currently the first-line treatment for macular edema (ME), but the specific metabolic changes in the aqueous humor (AH) after intravitreal anti-VEGF injections remain poorly understood.
Methods: A total of 120 AH samples from 60 ME patients before and after anti-VEGF treatment were collected from the ophthalmology clinic and ward of the Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. Non-targeted metabolomics analysis of the AH samples was performed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was used to identify metabolite differences before and after anti-VEGF treatment in patients with different ME etiologies.
Results: Distinct metabolomic profiles were observed between pre- and post-treatment samples. A total of 145 significantly altered metabolites were identified after anti-VEGF treatment, with 84 upregulated metabolites related to carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, and 61 downregulated metabolites involved in amino acid metabolism. Both common and etiology-specific metabolic alterations were observed. In age-related macular degeneration (AMD)-ME, treatment-induced metabolic changes mainly involved amino acid metabolism, whereas in branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO)-ME, lipid metabolism was primarily affected. Diabetic macular edema (DME) patients showed more complex metabolic alterations, involving amino acid, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism.
Conclusions: Intravitreal anti-VEGF injections significantly alter AH metabolites in ME patients. These findings provide insight into underlying metabolic processes in ME pathogenesis and treatment efficacy.
期刊介绍:
Eye and Vision is an open access, peer-reviewed journal for ophthalmologists and visual science specialists. It welcomes research articles, reviews, methodologies, commentaries, case reports, perspectives and short reports encompassing all aspects of eye and vision. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: current developments of theoretical, experimental and clinical investigations in ophthalmology, optometry and vision science which focus on novel and high-impact findings on central issues pertaining to biology, pathophysiology and etiology of eye diseases as well as advances in diagnostic techniques, surgical treatment, instrument updates, the latest drug findings, results of clinical trials and research findings. It aims to provide ophthalmologists and visual science specialists with the latest developments in theoretical, experimental and clinical investigations in eye and vision.