Proteomics on choroidal neovascularization based on itraq and the protective effect of TAB1 in CNV

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is a severe pathological outcome of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which could lead to blindness. The present study was aimed at exploring the mechanisms of CNV, hoping to provide new clues in finding the treatment target of CNV. ITRAQ approach was applied to analyze the proteins in choroidal neovascularization of CNV and normal rats. KEGG and GO annotation were used to analyze the differently-expressed proteins. Western Blotting was used as the method to identify the differently-expressed proteins. TAB1, one of the differently-expressed proteins, was chosen as the study objective in the following research. AAV-TAB1 over-expression vehicle was constructed to investigate the function of TAB1 in CNV. IL-6 and IL-18 were tested with the use of ELISA. Western Blotting was used to test the expression of NF-kB pathway molecules. In terms of the results, expressions of 49 kinds of proteins were up-regulated in CNV rats while expressions of 241 kinds of proteins were down-regulated among the 4380 identified proteins. Overexpression of TAB1 significantly reduced areas of CNV lesions in vivo. Cell proliferation significantly increased in the TAB1 over-expressed group in RPE. IL-6 expression significantly increased in the TAB1-overexpression group while IL-18 expression significantly reduced. Western blotting results showed NF-kB pathway molecules were involved in it. The present study suggests TAB1 may play a protective role in CNV progression and the relative pathway owns the potential to be the treating target of CNV.