Tears May Hold Keys to Early Diagnosis of Eye and Brain Disorders, New Research Suggests
Barcelona, Spain – A groundbreaking analysis of over 100 international studies reveals that tear fluid contains valuable biomarkers potentially capable of detecting early signs of both eye and brain disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases like dementia. Researchers at the IVECAT institute, in collaboration with the Department of Ophthalmology at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, published their findings in Extracellular Vesicles and Circulating Nucleic Acids, highlighting the diagnostic potential of analyzing extracellular vesicles (EVs) present in tears.
EVs, nanoscale vesicles released by cells, carry a wealth of biological data – including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids – and remain well-protected within these structures.The IVECAT team’s research demonstrates that tears offer insights not only into the health of the ocular surface but also potentially into deeper eye structures and even the brain, due to EVs’ ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. “The potential is enormous,” says San Roque, a researcher involved in the study. “In the future, tears may play a crucial role in the early diagnosis and follow-up of both eye and brain disorders. This research is an critically important first step towards personalized and less burdensome diagnostics.”
The emerging field faces challenges, however, primarily a lack of standardized methods for sample collection, storage, and analysis. Researchers are advocating for the adoption of international guidelines, such as those provided by the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV), to ensure comparability of results across studies.
This research builds on recent advancements utilizing artificial intelligence to diagnose conditions thru eye scans. In a study published earlier this year,the AI-driven biomarker RetiPhenoAge was shown to predict the risk of cognitive decline and dementia with up to 40% accuracy within five years,based on a simple retinal photo analysis of over 500 patients in Singapore and validated with 33,000 participants from the UK Biobank. Moreover, an AI algorithm developed at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital in 2022 has improved the diagnosis of glaucoma, enabling doctors without specialized training to achieve diagnostic accuracy comparable to glaucoma specialists.
