Future for biological therapy for uveitis.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review biological therapies as they pertain to the treatment of inflammatory eye diseases, especially uveitis.

RECENT FINDINGS: Biological therapies including antibodies, soluble receptors, and cytokines are being tested increasingly for a variety of ocular inflammations. As a class, tumor necrosis factor inhibitors have arguably been the most widely employed and have emerged as a successful approach to treat Behçet's disease. Alpha interferon has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of Behçet's disease and other forms of posterior uveitis. Additional cytokines, cell surface markers, adhesion molecules, and accessory molecules are targets of biological therapy, but the relevance of these targets in eye inflammation is sometimes just theoretical. And any disruption of the immune response entails potential risk.

SUMMARY: Biological therapies offer tremendous potential in the treatment of ocular inflammation, but their study to date has been limited and both the efficacy and the risk are incompletely known for most of the available interventions.