Personalized approaches for the management of glaucoma

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Personalized medicine is the future goal across all specialties. Accurate prediction of optimal treatment beneficial and adverse effects could transform patient management. This is of particular importance in chronic conditions, where a ‘trial and error’ approach over months and years can contribute to significant morbidity. Glaucoma is a chronic irreversible progressive optic neuropathy, a leading cause of blindness worldwide. An ideal personalized approach in glaucoma clinic would be to answer the inevitable question in a patient’s first visit: ‘Which treatment option will work best for me so that I won’t go blind?’

Areas covered

This review will give an overview of the knowledge we have acquired to achieve this goal, particularly discussing using patient’s individual risk factors, their genetic profile, and different treatment modalities, including therapy compliance, to personalize care.

Expert opinion

Pharmacogenomics and genetic profiling are the most tangible ways in which glaucoma management can be personalized. Future challenges will include developing realistic animal models to reflect the underlying genetic patterns in glaucoma to investigate their interaction with different treatments.

KEYWORDS:

• pharamacogenetics
• pharmacogenomics
• personalization

Funding

Authors have received funding from their affiliated institutions.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewers disclosure

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial relationships or otherwise to disclose.