Local research found that inhibition of glaucoma gene

Traditional glaucoma treatment is mostly palliative, with the success rate of only about five percent. But the local researchers found a gene that can inhibit glaucoma, and the patient is expected to get more effective treatment in the future.

The world's largest glaucoma study was initiated by the Institute of the Singapore Genomics Institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research; and the Singapore National Eye Centre of the Singapore Eye Research Institute.

A total of 120,000 patients from 36 countries around the world and healthy elderly people participated in the study, they come from Singapore, Japan, Thailand and the United States and other places.

Researchers collected blood samples from participants between 2015 and 2017 and conducted gene sequencing studies.

The results showed that many healthy Japanese group called LOXL1 genes are rare variants, it can inhibit this gene. Compared with the Japanese patients suffering from glaucoma, healthy Japanese with a variant of LOXL1 gene probability is nearly 25 times higher.

Dr. Xu Jiequan, head of the research team at the Genome Research Institute, has explained that LOXL1 is the culprit leading to Exfoliation Syndrome. Exfoliative syndromes can cause ocular cells to lose their adhesiveness and fall off, resulting in elevated intraocular pressure in the patient, causing glaucoma.

"Researchers have previously discovered only the association of LOXL1 and glaucoma, but they do not know how to use this gene to treat glaucoma, but the Japanese example shows that as long as the gene is inhibited, it can effectively prevent glaucoma caused by exfoliative syndromes."

Further study to improve the therapeutic effect

There are about 70 million people in the world suffering from exfoliative syndrome, of which 30% of people will deteriorate into glaucoma. The existing treatment of glaucoma mainly through eye drops to alleviate the situation of patients with high intraocular pressure, can not prevent or cure glaucoma, the success rate is only half.

"All of us have LOXL1 genes, and researchers will learn from the genetic variants of the Japanese LOXL1 for two years," said Professor Aung Tin, vice president of the National Eye Centre in Singapore and director of the Institute of Ophthalmology in Singapore. Inhibit it, to achieve the effect of prevention and treatment of glaucoma.