Diagnostics and therapeutics for macular degeneration-related disorders

1. A method for diagnosing, or identifying a predisposition to the development of, a macular degeneration-related disorder in a subject, comprising detecting in a biological sample from the subject the presence or abnormal levels of an autoantibody against, or an immune complex containing, at least one macular degeneration-associated molecule selected from the group consisting of glucose-regulated protein 78 kD (GRP-78), complement 1q binding protein/hyaluronic acid binding protein, albumin, pyruvate carboxylase, and villin 2, wherein the presence or abnormal levels of said autoantibody is indicative of a macular degeneration-related disorder or a predisposition to the development of a macular degeneration-associated molecule.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting comprises

contacting the biological sample with said at least one macular degeneration-associated molecule or an antigenic fragment thereof, and

detecting a specific interaction between the autoantibody and the at least one macular degeneration-associated molecule or an antigenic fragment thereof.

3. The method of claim 2 , that comprises

contacting the biological sample with said at least one macular degeneration-associated molecule or an antigenic fragment thereof, whereby a complex is formed between an autoantibody from the sample and the macular degeneration-associated molecule or antigenic fragment thereof;

precipitating the complex and,

detecting the complex.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising the step of contacting the biological sample with a labeled antibody that competes with the autoantibody to form complexes with the at least one macular degeneration-associated molecule or an antigenic fragment thereof.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the at least one macular degeneration-associated molecule or an antigenic fragment thereof is bound to a solid phase and the method further comprises the step of removing the solid phase from the biological sample to separate the complexes from unbound, labeled antibody.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting comprises precipitating the immune complex from the biological sample.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising

detecting a level of the autoantibody or immune complex in a control subject and

comparing levels of the autoantibody or immune complex in the subject and the control subject.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said biological sample is a urine, eye fluid, blood plasma, serum, whole blood, or lymph fluid from the subject.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the biological sample is serum.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the macular degeneration-related disorder is Malattia Leventinese.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the macular degeneration-related disorder is age-related macular degeneration.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the biological sample is serum.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising examining the subject with an ophthalmologic procedure.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the biological sample is serum and the one macular degeneration-associated molecule is glucose-regulated protein 78 kD (GRP-78).

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the biological sample is serum and the one macular degeneration-associated molecule is complement 1q binding protein/hyaluronic acid binding protein.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the biological sample is serum and the one macular degeneration-associated molecule is albumin.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the biological sample is serum and the one macular degeneration-associated molecule is pyruvate carboxylase.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the biological sample is serum and the one macular degeneration-associated molecule is villin 2.