Tassie data is leading way

Step closer to preventing glaucoma

RESEARCH that began in Tasmania more than two decades ago has helped Australian researchers move a step closer to preventing people from going blind as they age.

The research identified more than 50 new gene markers that increase a person’s risk of developing glaucoma — the leading cause of irreversible blindness.

It started out as the Glaucoma Inheritance Study in Tasmania, established by Professor David Mackey at the University of Tasmania in the 1990s.

It is the largest genetic study of glaucoma to date and involves more than 134,000 participants from throughout Australia, the United Kingdom and around the world.

Professor Alex Hewitt, who is a senior author on the study and a clinical researcher at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, said the research looked at genetic variation in intra-ocular pressure, or pressure inside the eye.

Prof Hewitt said the Tasmanian data had been combined with other data from people around Australia, and then with other data points from around the world.

“We found over 100 genetic variants that influence the pressure in the eye, and 85 of those were novel, they hadn’t been described before,” Prof Hewitt said.

“We then looked to see if those genetic variants were associated with glaucoma, or whether or not they influenced glaucoma, and we found over 50 of those were also influencing glaucoma.”

Prof Hewitt said glaucoma was largely preventable through timely treatment. “Our new research will improve our ability to identify people at risk of developing glaucoma and this takes us one step closer to a preventive treatment that could stop people from going blind as they age,” he said.

The study showed that individuals with a large number of genetic markers had an almost six-fold increased risk of developing glaucoma compared to someone who had fewer gene variants.