Interleukin-8 Promoter Polymorphism -251 A/T and Treatment Response in Neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration

Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a potent pro-angiogenic and pro-inflammatory chemokine, suggested to hold a role in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). Our aim is to study the association of the single-nucleotide polymorphism -251 A/T (rs4073) in the IL-8 promoter region with the treatment response to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections in nAMD.

This is a prospective study of treatment-naïve patients with nAMD. Treatment response after a loading dose of three intravitreal anti-VEGF injections was defined as functional response based on change in visual acuity, and morphological response based on change in central retinal thickness (CRT) and intraretinal fluid on optical coherence tomography. Morphological response was categorized in good, partial, and poor responders. Blood DNA was analyzed for -251 A/T genotype.

The IL-8 promoter polymorphism -251 A/T was not significantly associated to functional treatment response (P=0.09). No significant association was found between genotype and morphological treatment response (P=0.799). Older age was significantly associated to good morphological responders compared to partial and poor responders (P=0.014).

The IL-8 polymorphism -251 A/T is not associated to morphological nor functional treatment response to intravitreal anti-VEGF injections in patients with nAMD.