Age at Glaucoma Diagnosis in Germline Myocilin Mutation Patients: Associations with Polymorphisms in Protein Stabilities

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, with elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) as the only known modifiable risk factor. Trabecular meshwork (TM)-inducible myocilin (the <i>MYOC</i> gene) was the first to be identified and linked to juvenile and primary open-...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tarin Tanji, Emily Cohen, Darrick Shen, Chi Zhang, Fei Yu, Anne L. Coleman, Jie J. Zheng
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: MDPI AG 2021
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Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/f9c23b7aba584649b7d656841d16ca02
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Summary:Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, with elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) as the only known modifiable risk factor. Trabecular meshwork (TM)-inducible myocilin (the <i>MYOC</i> gene) was the first to be identified and linked to juvenile and primary open-angle glaucoma. It has been suggested that mutations in the <i>MYOC</i> gene and the aggregation of mutant myocilin in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of TM may cause ER stress, resulting in a reduced outflow of aqueous humor and an increase in IOP. We selected 20 <i>MYOC</i> mutations with experimentally determined melting temperatures of mutated myocilin proteins. We included 40 published studies with at least one glaucoma patient with one of these 20 <i>MYOC</i> mutations and information on age at glaucoma diagnosis. Based on data from 458 patients, we found that a statistically significant but weak correlation was present between age and melting temperature based on various assumptions for age. We therefore conclude that genetic analysis of <i>MYOC</i> mutations alone cannot be used to accurately predict age at glaucoma diagnosis. However, it might be an important prognostic factor combined with other clinical factors for critical and early detection of glaucoma.