Dr. Anuprita Ghosh

Ocular surface associated blindness is a major world-wide problem. Currently, there are over 7 million blind in India (as per National Programme for Control of Blindness, World Health Organization, Eye Bank Association of India). Most of these conditions can be prevented by early detection and management. These conditions include corneal wounds/scarring (in defence sector, in factories, accidents, childhood trauma etc), adverse refractive surgery complications, infections, keratoconus, Keratitis, trachoma and corneal erosions. In most cases, the pathogenesis and progression characteristics of the disease are not quite well characterised. However, the role of inflammatory and fibrotic signalling under the control of the NFkB and TGFβ pathways have been documented. In addition, in our recent studies, we have demonstrated novel roles of matrix enzymes, transcription factors and inflammatory mediators as drivers for progressive diseases like keratoconus and corneal wound healing. We have also discovered novel associations of Vitamin D with specific pro-inflammatory factors in tears of patients with corneal disease. Using in vitro models we also observed immunomodulation as a possible therapeutic modality for such conditions and curcumin is therefore hypothesized as one such effector. Hence, harnessing the utility of natural products like Curcumin and Vitamin D that have known immunomodulatory functions for topical applications would be beneficial in the management and prevention of potentially blinding corneal conditions. There are no such formulations of natural compounds available that have specific utility in immunomodulation for human disease since the basic molecular mechanisms are not well understood. In addition, some currently available eye drops are not for specific application to corneal surface disorders and hence it is important to assess functionality of these molecules on specific disease related molecular pathways in human eye.