Abstract
Infection mediated ocular surface stress responses are activated as early defense mechanisms in response to host cell damage. Integrated stress responses initiate the host response to different types of infections and modulate the transcription of key genes and translation of proteins. The crosstalk between host and pathogen results in profound alterations in cellular and molecular homeostasis triggering specific stress responses in the infected tissues. The amplitude and variations of such responses are partly responsible for the disease severity and clinical sequelae. Understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of ocular infections is important for early diagnosis and effective treatment. This review considers the molecular status of infection mediated ocular surface stress responses which may shed light on the importance of the host stress-signaling pathways. In this review, we collated literature on the molecular studies of all ocular surface infections and summarize the results from such studies systematically. Identification of important mediators involved in the crosstalk between the stress response and activation of diverse signaling molecules in host ocular surface infection may provide novel molecular targets for maintaining the cellular homeostasis during infection. These targets can be then explored and validated for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
Highlights
The ocular surface of the human eye comprises the cornea, conjunctiva, lacrimal glands, and eyelids [1] and is inhabited by several microorganisms due to constant exposure to the external environment
Epidemic outbreaks are categorized as the clinical syndromes of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) which occurs in 20–40-year-old adults and pharyngeal conjunctival fever (PCF) which is more common in children [42]
(square) targets represents viral infection, and red targets represent fungal infection. It is very evident from the molecular data presented by various groups that different types of ocular surface infections lead to unique host cellular and molecular responses
Summary
The ocular surface of the human eye comprises the cornea, conjunctiva, lacrimal glands, and eyelids [1] and is inhabited by several microorganisms due to constant exposure to the external environment. Understanding the etiopathogenesis and associated clinical features of the most common ocular surface infections has helped unravel the complexities in diagnosis and subsequent treatment of infectious eye disease [11]. An accurate microbiological diagnosis helps enable the clinician to formulate an effective treatment regime, taking into account the specific antimicrobial sensitivity patterns of the pathogens where possible Microbiological techniques such as microscopic analysis of sample smears and cultures to isolate the infective organism remain the most commonly used methods of diagnosis. Additional techniques such as in vivo confocal microscopy show characteristic features in cases of Acanthamoeba and fungal ulcers and can aid diagnosis. Symptomatic relief and cold and photophobia types of host ocular surface infections
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