EYES OF AFRICA : THE GENETICS OF BLINDNESS

我们的合作中心《非洲之眼：失明的遗传学》将解决令人震惊的经济、 在非洲，不可逆转失明的社会和个人代价。永久性的最常见原因是 非洲的失明是原发性开角型青光眼(POAG)，这是亚伯拉罕的主要青光眼类型 撒哈拉非洲(SSA)。多项研究发现青光眼对非洲人的影响不成比例 对抗欧洲血统。作为一种疾病，POAG是导致永久性失明的最大原因 在非洲，并为此原因是这项建议的重点。我们将发现新的POAG易感基因 为新的治疗手段奠定基础，开展撒哈拉以南非洲青光眼激光治疗 试验(SSA-GLT)以确定青光眼早期治疗的最佳方法并进行有针对性的 撒哈拉以南非洲青光眼筛查(TGS-SSA)：一种早期识别青光眼并增加青光眼的方法 撒哈拉以南非洲地区对青光眼的认识。成功完成手术将识别出无症状的青光眼 对于治疗，教育家庭关于这种疾病的知识，并识别导致早期疾病的高渗透性突变 青光眼发作。我们的协作中心将在非洲与盲人在多个互补和 以协同的方式处理在非洲发现、治疗和了解POAG的关键方法。我们会 在我们现有的大量基因分型样本数据集的基础上，利用我们广泛的团队扩展这一资源 分布在非洲各地的活跃科目招聘网站。简而言之，这项提议旨在既提供 对减少非洲的失明产生直接和持久的影响。

Our Collaborative Center “Eyes of Africa: The Genetics of Blindness” will address the staggering economic, societal, and personal cost of irreversible blindness in Africa. The most common cause of permanent blindness in Africa is primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), which is the dominant type of glaucoma in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Multiple studies have found that glaucoma disproportionately affects people of African versus European ancestry. As a disease, POAG constitutes the single greatest cause of permanent blindness in Africa and for this reason is the focus of this proposal. We will identify new susceptibility genes for POAG in order to lay the foundation for novel therapeutic intervention, conduct the Sub-Saharan Africa Glaucoma Laser Trial (SSA-GLT) to identify the optimal approach for early treatment of glaucoma and conduct Targeted Glaucoma Screening in Sub Saharan Africa (TGS-SSA): An approach to identify glaucoma early and increase awareness of glaucoma in Sub-Saharan Africa. Successful completion will identify pre-symptomatic glaucoma for treatment, educate families about the disease, and identify highly penetrant mutations that give rise to early onset glaucoma. Our Collaborative Center will fight blindness in Africa in in multiple complementary and synergistic ways that address critical approaches to identify, treat, and understand POAG in Africa. We will build upon our existing large dataset of genotyped samples, expanding this resource using our extensive group of active subject recruitment sites distributed across Africa. In short, this proposal is designed to provide both an immediate and a long-lasting impact to reduce blindness in Africa.