Treatment
To date there is no treatment for ocular albinism, probably because such little is known about the receptor function and its role in pathophysiology. Though surgery for strabismus is sometimes helpful, there does not seem to be a sure remedy for it until the etiology of ocular albinism is well established. However, with the recent discovery of the ligand for this receptor and uncovering the OA1 signaling pathway, treatment of OA1 by administering L-DOPA should seem possible.
Touloukian et al. have characterized OA1 immunologically as a melanoma/melanocyte differentiation antigen. Flow cytometry data suggests that OA1-specific T cells are all CD8+. This indicates that OA1 peptide is processed and presented on the surface of melanoma cells to be recognized by antigen-specific T cells. Moreover, recognition of OA1 by T cells induces cytokine production by the OA1-specific T cells.This means that OA1 is a potential target for melanoma vaccines.
Read more about this topic: Ocular Albinism Type 1
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides through an interpreter, quite in the described mode,the Indians, as usual, having the advantage in point of truth and earnestness, and therefore of eloquence. The most prominent chief was named Little Crow. They were quite dissatisfied with the white mans treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)