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World J Diabetes. Jul 15, 2021; 12(7): 939-953
Published online Jul 15, 2021. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v12.i7.939
Role of interferons in diabetic retinopathy
Bing-Yan Li, Wei Tan, Jing-Ling Zou, Yan He, Shigeo Yoshida, Bing Jiang, Ye-Di Zhou
Bing-Yan Li, Wei Tan, Jing-Ling Zou, Yan He, Bing Jiang, Ye-Di Zhou, Department of Ophthalmology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China
Bing-Yan Li, Wei Tan, Jing-Ling Zou, Yan He, Bing Jiang, Ye-Di Zhou, Hunan Clinical Research Center of Ophthalmic Disease, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China
Shigeo Yoshida, Department of Ophthalmology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume 830-0011, Fukuoka, Japan
Author contributions: Zhou YD conceived and designed the study; Li BY wrote the majority of the manuscript and prepared the tables; all authors checked the references and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81800855 and No. 82070967; and Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, No. 2018JJ3765.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that no competing interest exists.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ye-Di Zhou, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, No. 139 Renmin Middle Road, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China. zhouyedi@csu.edu.cn
Received: January 20, 2021
Peer-review started: January 20, 2021
First decision: April 6, 2021
Revised: April 15, 2021
Accepted: May 25, 2021
Article in press: May 25, 2021
Published online: July 15, 2021
Processing time: 172 Days and 16.8 Hours
Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the major causes of visual impairment and irreversible blindness in developed regions. Aside from abnormal angiogenesis, inflammation is the most specific and might be the initiating factor of DR. As a key participant in inflammation, interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) can be detected in different parts of the eye and is responsible for the breakdown of the blood-retina barrier and activation of inflammatory cells and other cytokines, which accelerate neovascularization and neuroglial degeneration. In addition, IFN-γ is involved in other vascular complications of diabetes mellitus and angiogenesis-dependent diseases, such as diabetic nephropathy, cerebral microbleeds, and age-related macular degeneration. Traditional treatments, such as anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents, vitrectomy, and laser photocoagulation therapy, are more effective for angiogenesis and not tolerable for every patient. Many ongoing clinical trials are exploring effective drugs that target inflammation. For instance, IFN-α acts against viruses and angiogenesis and is commonly used to treat malignant tumors. Moreover, IFN-α has been shown to contribute to alleviating the progression of DR and other ocular diseases. In this review, we emphasize the roles that IFNs play in the pathogenesis of DR and discuss potential clinical applications of IFNs in DR, such as diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic treatment.

Keywords: Interferons; Cytokines; Diabetic retinopathy; Interferon-alpha; Interferon-gamma; Inflammation

Core Tip: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus and seriously threatens the eyesight of the working-age population. Inflammation and inflammatory cytokines are closely related with its pathological mechanisms. Here we discuss the roles of interferons in DR, mainly from the pathogenesis and clinical applications.