Proteomic insight into the pathogenesis of CAPN5-vitreoretinopathy

CAPN5 Neovascular Inflammatory Vitreoretinopathy (CAPN5-NIV; OMIM 193235) is a poorly-understood rare, progressive inflammatory intraocular disease with limited therapeutic options. To profile disease effector proteins in CAPN5-NIV patient vitreous, liquid vitreous biopsies were collected from two groups: eyes from control subjects (n = 4) with idiopathic macular holes (IMH) and eyes from test subjects (n = 12) with different stages of CAPN5-NIV. Samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Protein expression changes were evaluated by principal component analysis, 1-way ANOVA (significant p-value < 0.05), hierarchical clustering, gene ontology, and pathway representation. There were 216 differentially-expressed proteins (between CAPN5-NIV and control vitreous), including those unique to and abundant in each clinical stage. Gene ontology analysis revealed decreased synaptic signaling proteins in CAPN5-NIV vitreous compared to controls. Pathway analysis revealed that inflammatory mediators of the acute phase response and the complement cascade were highly-represented. The CAPN5-NIV vitreous proteome displayed characteristic enrichment of proteins and pathways previously-associated with non-infectious posterior uveitis, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD), age-related macular degeneration (AMD), proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), and proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). This study expands our knowledge of affected molecular pathways in CAPN5-NIV using unbiased, shotgun proteomic analysis rather than targeted detection platforms. The high-levels and representation of acute phase response proteins suggests a functional role for the innate immune system in CAPN5-NIV pathogenesis.