| Domain | Core finding | Suggested ontology terms/identifiers | Evidence type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Definition / disease entity | Uveitis is intraocular inflammation affecting the uveal tract and adjacent ocular structures; major anatomic classes are anterior, intermediate, posterior, and panuveitis (pqac-00000008, pqac-00000006, pqac-00000016) | MONDO:0020283 uveitis; label-only: anterior uveitis, intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis, panuveitis; MeSH/ICD/SUN classification labels | Human review + multicenter clinical cohort |
| Classification / disease-level resource | SUN criteria are used for uveitis definition and anterior chamber grading; National Eye Institute system used for vitreous haze grading (pqac-00000016, pqac-00000017) | label-only: SUN Working Group criteria; NEI vitreous haze scale | Human clinical standards |
| Epidemiology | Reported prevalence ranges about 36.2–730 per 100,000 and incidence 17–52.4 per 100,000; uveitis causes substantial visual impairment and often affects working-age adults (pqac-00000016, pqac-00000004, pqac-00000008) | label-only: epidemiologic measure, visual impairment | Human epidemiology / reviews |
| Demographics / regional pattern | In a Colombian multicenter cohort of 3,404 patients, mean age at diagnosis was 41.1 years, 54.2% were female, 66.7% unilateral, 48.3% acute, and 83% non-granulomatous (pqac-00000016) | label-only: unilateral disease, acute onset, non-granulomatous inflammation | Human multicenter cohort |
| Major phenotype / ocular symptoms-signs | Common phenotype spectrum includes anterior chamber cells/flare, vitreous haze, retinal vasculitis, chorioretinal inflammation, optic disc edema, and reduced visual acuity; anatomy-specific manifestations differ by subtype (pqac-00000006, pqac-00000017, pqac-00000016) | HPO label-only: decreased visual acuity, photophobia, ocular pain, eye redness, floaters, vitreous haze, retinal vasculitis, macular edema | Human clinical + imaging |
| Major phenotype / pediatric disease | Pediatric uveitis can be asymptomatic, especially JIA-associated chronic anterior uveitis; childhood incidence ~4.3/100,000 and prevalence ~27.9/100,000 (pqac-00000019) | HPO label-only: asymptomatic anterior uveitis, cataract, glaucoma | Human pediatric review |
| Quality-of-life / functional burden | Uveitis is sight-threatening and associated with physical, economic, and visual-function burden; VFQ-25 is used as an outcome in current trials (pqac-00000014, pqac-00000023) | label-only: NEI VFQ-25; visual function impairment | Human review + interventional trial design |
| Anatomy affected / organ level | Primary structures include iris, ciliary body, choroid, retina, vitreous, anterior chamber, and posterior segment (pqac-00000006, pqac-00000009, pqac-00000017) | UBERON label-only: iris, ciliary body, choroid, retina, vitreous humor, anterior chamber of eyeball, posterior segment of eyeball | Human review + proteomics |
| Cell types involved | Pathogenic and regulatory immune cells implicated include Th17 cells, Th1 cells, Treg cells, CD8+ T cells, dendritic cells, granulocytes/neutrophils, plasma cells/B cells, NK cells, and retinal/endothelial cells (pqac-00000010, pqac-00000013, pqac-00000014, pqac-00000015, pqac-00000022, pqac-00000019) | CL label-only: T helper 17 cell, T-helper 1 cell, regulatory T cell, CD8-positive alpha-beta T cell, dendritic cell, neutrophil, plasma cell, natural killer cell, endothelial cell | Human + animal + in vitro |
| Molecular pathways | Recurrently implicated pathways include cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, JAK-STAT signaling, IL-23/Th17/GM-CSF signaling, PIM1-AKT-FOXO1, CXCR4-mediated trafficking, complement activation, ROS/TXNIP/HIF-1α, NF-κB, and STAT3 (pqac-00000001, pqac-00000013, pqac-00000014, pqac-00000009, pqac-00000022) | GO/Reactome label-only: inflammatory response, T cell activation, leukocyte migration, cytokine-mediated signaling pathway, complement activation, oxidative stress response | Human omics + animal mechanistic + in vitro |
| Etiology / broad categories | Uveitis can be infectious, noninfectious immune-mediated, drug-induced, traumatic, post-surgical, idiopathic, or masquerade syndrome (pqac-00000016, pqac-00000002, pqac-00000011) | MONDO:0020283; label-only: infectious uveitis, noninfectious uveitis, drug-induced uveitis, masquerade syndrome | Human cohort + reviews |
| Etiology / infectious | Infectious uveitis is caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites; a 2024 review found viruses 39% and bacteria 17% among infectious etiologies reviewed, and Colombian data identified toxoplasmosis as a leading cause (25.3%) (pqac-00000001, pqac-00000016) | label-only: ocular toxoplasmosis, viral uveitis, tuberculous uveitis, herpetic uveitis | Human systematic review + cohort |
| Etiology / immune-mediated systemic associations | Important associated systemic diseases include spondyloarthritis/HLA-B27 disease, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Behçet disease, sarcoidosis, Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, and TINU syndrome (pqac-00000002, pqac-00000008, pqac-00000019) | label-only: HLA-B27-associated acute anterior uveitis, JIA-associated uveitis, Behçet uveitis, ocular sarcoidosis, VKH, TINU syndrome | Human reviews |
| Genetic risk | HLA-B27 is a major risk allele for acute anterior uveitis; Open Targets links uveitis/anterior uveitis to ERAP1, IL23R, TNF, IL17A, and IL1B, supporting polygenic immune susceptibility (pqac-00000015, pqac-00000000, pqac-00000019) | label-only: HLA-B27, ERAP1, IL23R, TNF, IL17A, IL1B | Human genetic + database evidence |
| Gene-environment / microbiome | HLA-B27-associated disease may involve enteric antigen exposure and molecular mimicry; YeiH-specific CD8+ T cells in B27-associated anterior uveitis show mucosal signatures (CD161, integrin α4β7, CCR6), supporting a gut-eye axis (pqac-00000015) | GO label-only: antigen processing and presentation, mucosal immune response; CL label-only: CD8+ T cell | Human translational immunology |
| Environmental / drug trigger | Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a clinically important trigger of drug-induced uveitis; in TriNetX, ICI exposure was associated with HR 2.39 for incident uveitis over 144 months (pqac-00000011) | NCIT label-only: immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy; HPO label-only: uveitis adverse event | Human population-based EHR cohort |
| Diagnostics / clinical workup | Standard workup includes ophthalmic examination by slit lamp, intraocular pressure measurement, dilated fundus examination, visual acuity, and evaluation for systemic/infectious disease in multidisciplinary care (pqac-00000016, pqac-00000012) | LOINC/SNOMED label-only: visual acuity testing, slit lamp exam, tonometry, dilated fundus exam | Human clinical practice |
| Diagnostics / imaging | Imaging and grading include OCT, fluorescein angiography, ultra-widefield color fundus photography, and OCT/OCTA in trials and biomarker workups (pqac-00000017, pqac-00000023, pqac-00000024) | label-only: optical coherence tomography, fluorescein angiography, OCT angiography, ultra-widefield fundus photography | Human imaging studies + trials |
| Diagnostics / biomarkers | Aqueous humor proteomics in idiopathic uveitis/VKH identified complement activation and suggested transferrin plus complement factor B as a biomarker panel; tear proteomics in anti-TNF nonresponders highlighted DEF-1,3, biotinidase, ABCA1, neutrophil effector functions, and redox imbalance (pqac-00000009, pqac-00000012) | label-only: transferrin, complement factor B, defensin-1/3, biotinidase, ABCA1, S100 proteins, cytokines/chemokines | Human proteomics |
| Diagnostics / AI implementation | Deep learning on ultra-widefield fundus images achieved AUROC 0.996 internal and 0.973 external for uveitis screening, and AUROC 0.960/0.971 for ARN discrimination, with performance comparable to ophthalmologists (pqac-00000017) | NCIT label-only: artificial intelligence-assisted diagnosis; label-only: acute retinal necrosis | Human computational / imaging validation |
| Complications | Important complications include cataract, glaucoma/ocular hypertension, cystoid macular edema, retinal detachment, epiretinal membrane, vitreous hemorrhage, retinal neovascularization, ischemia, and blindness/vision loss (pqac-00000004, pqac-00000016, pqac-00000017, pqac-00000019) | HPO label-only: cataract, glaucoma, cystoid macular edema, retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage, blindness | Human cohort + reviews |
| Prognosis / disease course | Disease course may be acute, chronic, recurrent, unilateral or bilateral; recurrent or undertreated inflammation leads to structural damage and visual loss; ARN treatment delay is linked to worse vision outcomes (pqac-00000016, pqac-00000017, pqac-00000019) | HPO label-only: recurrent uveitis, chronic inflammation, severe visual loss | Human cohort + disease-specific study |
| Established treatment / corticosteroids | Corticosteroids remain mainstay therapy (topical, local, systemic); glucocorticoid target association is reflected by NR3C1 linkage in Open Targets (pqac-00000002, pqac-00000000) | NCIT label-only: corticosteroid therapy, triamcinolone acetonide, fluocinolone acetonide implant | Human reviews + database |
| Established treatment / conventional immunomodulators | Steroid-sparing systemic agents include methotrexate, azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, and cyclosporine (pqac-00000002) | NCIT label-only: methotrexate, azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, cyclosporine | Human review |
| Established treatment / biologics | Adalimumab is the only systemic biologic specifically noted as FDA/EMA approved for noninfectious intermediate, posterior, and panuveitis; nonresponse may occur in up to 40% (pqac-00000012, pqac-00000002) | NCIT label-only: adalimumab, TNF inhibitor | Human review + clinical proteomics cohort |
| Local interventional therapy | Intravitreal/suprachoroidal corticosteroid delivery is established in practice and trials; PEACHTREE tested suprachoroidal triamcinolone acetonide for uveitic macular edema, and TYNI is evaluating two YUTIQ implants versus sham (pqac-00000024, pqac-00000021) | NCIT label-only: suprachoroidal injection, intravitreal implant, triamcinolone acetonide, fluocinolone acetonide | Human phase 3 trials |
| Emerging systemic therapy / current trials | Active 2024-era trials include brepocitinib phase 3 CLARITY in active noninfectious non-anterior uveitis and a randomized trial of adalimumab biosimilar + mycophenolate versus corticosteroids + mycophenolate; izokibep phase 2b was terminated after endpoints were not met (pqac-00000018, pqac-00000023, pqac-00000025) | NCIT label-only: brepocitinib, adalimumab biosimilar, mycophenolate mofetil, izokibep, JAK/TYK2 pathway inhibition, IL-17A inhibition | Human clinical trials |
| Emerging therapeutic targets | Candidate targets/mechanisms from recent work include TIGIT agonism, PIM1/CXCR4 inhibition, IL-6/JAK/complement targeting in anti-TNF-refractory disease, and dual CD28/ICOS blockade with acazicolcept (pqac-00000010, pqac-00000014, pqac-00000012, pqac-00000020) | NCIT label-only: TIGIT agonist, acazicolcept, IL-6 inhibitor, JAK inhibitor, complement inhibitor, CXCR4 inhibitor, PIM1 inhibitor | Animal mechanistic + human proteomics + preclinical translational |
| Prevention / secondary-tertiary | Practical prevention centers on early detection, prompt treatment, multidisciplinary screening in at-risk groups such as JIA, and avoidance/exclusion of infectious etiologies before immunosuppression (pqac-00000019, pqac-00000016, pqac-00000018) | label-only: ophthalmic screening, tertiary prevention, tuberculosis screening before biologics | Human guidelines/review + trial eligibility |
| Natural disease in other species | Equine recurrent uveitis is a spontaneous remitting-relapsing autoimmune uveitis and a leading cause of blindness in horses; it shares clinical and immunopathologic features with human recurrent panuveitis (pqac-00000022) | label-only: equine recurrent uveitis; NCBI Taxon label-only: Equus caballus | Veterinary natural disease + comparative pathology |
| Model organisms / experimental models | Experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) in mice and rats is the principal model for autoimmune/noninfectious uveitis; useful for studying Th1/Th17 disease, Treg biology, ocular infiltration, and testing therapies, but does not fully capture all human subtypes (pqac-00000010, pqac-00000013, pqac-00000014, pqac-00000020, pqac-00000019) | label-only: experimental autoimmune uveitis, Lewis rat model, C57BL/6 mouse model | Animal model review + mechanistic studies |


*Table: This table summarizes ontology-ready disease facts for uveitis across clinical, mechanistic, diagnostic, therapeutic, and translational domains. It is designed to support structured knowledge-base curation using only evidence already gathered.*