S'pore Scientists Identify Genes Associated With Glaucoma

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah SINGAPORE, Sept 3 (Bernama) -- Singapore scientists have identified three new genes associated with a type of glaucoma which is a leading cause of blindness in Chinese people. Primary Angle Closure Glaucoma (PACG) affects 15 million people worldwide, 80 per cent of whom live in Asia. The discovery, published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature Genetics, on Aug 26, was conducted by scientists from the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI)/Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), National University of Singapore (NUS), National University Hospital’s Department of Ophthalmology and Tan Tock Seng Hospital. The team of scientists was led an international consortium that carried out a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 1,854 PACG cases and 9,608 controls of over five sample collections in Asia. They performed validation experiments in another 1,917 PACG cases and 8,943 controls collected from a further six sample collections from around the world. A total of 1,293 Singaporeans with PACG and 8,025 Singaporean controls were enrolled in the study, the first to study PACG genetics using a genome-wide perspective. The finding confirms the long-standing suspicion of Prof Aung Tin, the lead principal investigator of the project, who is senior consultant and Head of Glaucoma Service at SNEC, Deputy Executive Director at SERI, and Professor of Ophthalmology at NUS. Prof Aung has worked on PACG for over 10 years and believes from clinical observations that the disease is strongly hereditary. “This provides further evidence that genetic factors play a role in development of PACG,” said Prof Aung. He said "it is a major achievement for our Singapore team leading the largest international consortium of doctors and scientists involved in glaucoma research. The study was funded primarily by the Translational Clinical Research (TCR) programme grant from the National Research Foundation that was awarded to SERI in 2008, as well as other grants from the National Medical Research Council (NMRC), Biomedical Research Council (BMRC), and funding from GIS. -- BERNAMA