The emerging role of interleukin (IL)-1 in the pathogenesis and treatment of inflammatory and degenerative eye diseases

Interleukin (IL)-1 plays a key role in the pathogenesis and thereafter in the search for specific treatments of different inflammatory and degenerative eye diseases. Indeed, an overactivity of IL-1 might be an initiating factor for many immunopathologic sceneries in the eye, as proven by the efficacy of the specific IL-1 blockade in different ocular diseases. For instance, the uveitis in monogenic autoinflammatory disorders, such as Blau syndrome and cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome, or in complex polygenic autoinflammatory disorders, such as Behçet’s disease, has been successfully treated with IL-1 blockers. Similarly, therapy with the IL-1 receptor antagonist anakinra has proven successful also in scleritis and episcleritis in the context of different rheumatic conditions. Moreover, interesting findings deriving from animal models of ocular disease have set a rational basis from a therapeutic viewpoint to manage patients also with dry eye disease and a broadening number of ocular inflammatory and degenerative conditions, which start from an imbalance between IL-1 and its receptor antagonist.