Axim develops rapid test for dry eye inflammatory biomarker
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Axim Biotechnologies has developed a rapid quantitative tear test to detect an inflammatory biomarker for dry eye disease, according to a press release.
Diagnosis and treatment of dry eye disease (DED) can be difficult because of the discordance between signs and symptoms. Inflammation may be present before clinical signs, so it may be helpful to detect the inflammatory biomarker matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) early.
“Currently available MMP-9 testing does not detect a reduction in tear MMP-9 levels until the concentration drops below 40 ng/mL and thus may miss clinically significant improvement that did not reach that threshold,” Axim chief medical officer Joseph Tauber, MD, said in the release.
Axim said its test could be used to diagnose DED and help guide treatment, giving it the potential to improve pre- and post-surgical outcomes.
“The availability of quantitative tear MMP-9 testing would be a significant advance in our ability to measure the degree of inflammation affecting our dry eye patients, allowing for more objective classification of their disease,” Tauber said in the release. “Equally important would be the ability to measure improvement in control of inflammation. That is the goal of many of our therapies for ocular surface disease, including pharmaceuticals, thermal pulsation treatments and even light-based therapies.”
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