NCT04656197

The Ocular Microbiome in Patients With Dry Eye Disease

Identification of the Ocular Microbiome and Its Role on Dry Eye Disease

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 80 (actual)
• Sponsor: Insel Gruppe AG, University Hospital Bern · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The primary objective of this study is the characterization of the ocular microbiome in a healthy cohort and in patients with dry eye disease using whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing. Secondary objectives are the identification of differences between the ocular microbiome of healthy controls and patients with dry eye disease as well as between the ocular and the gut microbiome.

Detailed description

Dry eye disease is considered to be the most common ocular surface disease worldwide. Recent studies revealed that the ocular microbiome plays an important role in maintaining ocular surface homeostasis and health. Commensals colonizing the ocular surface seem to support the local innate immune system. As the ocular microbiome coordinates several functions together with ocular mucosal and immune epithelial cells, alteration of the microbiome can lead to changes in the integrity of the ocular surface. This can lead to the development of ocular surface related diseases such as dry eye. Inflammation seems to be a key component of dry eye disease in terms of being a propagator as well as a consequence. In contrast to earlier approaches of identifying the microbiome by cultivating with only limited results, it is now possible to provide more details regarding all microbiota residing on the ocular surface due to modern sequencing techniques. Thus, the overall aim of this study is the identification of the role of the ocular microbiome in dry eye disease.

Conditions

• Dry Eye Disease

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Ocular microbiome	Taxonomical and functional characterization of the ocular microbiome

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-09-30
• Primary completion: 2020-03-04
• Completion: 2020-03-04
• First posted: 2020-12-07
• Last updated: 2020-12-07

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland