Gene therapy in glaucoma-3: Therapeutic approaches

Despite new and improving diagnostic and therapeutic options for glaucoma, blindness from glaucoma is increasing and glaucoma remains a major public health problem. The role of heredity in ocular disease including glaucoma is attracting greater attention as the knowledge and recent advances of Human Genome Project and the HapMap Project have made genetic analysis of many human disorders possible. Glaucoma offers a variety of potential targets for gene therapy. All risk factors for glaucoma and their underlying causes are potentially susceptible to modulation by gene transfer. As genetic defects responsible for glaucoma are identified and the biochemical mechanisms underlying the disease are recognized, new methods of therapy can be developed. Genetic tests are indicated for treatment, diagnosis, prognosis, counseling, and research purposes; however, there is significant overlap among them. One of the important genetic tests for glaucoma is OcuGene. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for the glaucoma specialists to be familiar with and understand the basic molecular mechanisms, genes responsible for glaucoma, and the ways of genetic treatment. Recently, several promising genetic therapeutic approaches had been investigated. Some are either used to stop apoptosis and halt further glaucomatous damage, wound healing modulating effect or long lasting intraocular pressure lowering effects than the conventional commercially available antiglaucoma medications. METHOD OF LITERATURE SEARCH: The literature was searched on the Medline database using the PubMed interface. The key words for search were glaucoma, gene therapy, and genetic diagnosis of glaucoma.