Vaccine development for glaucoma: From skepticism to certitude

Vaccines are conventionally thought to be a strategy to thwart the onset of any disease caused by pathogens. The elementary foundation for this concept is the ability of the immune system to discriminate between what is native to the body and what is foreign. This molecular xenophobia can, in principle, be exploited to prime the body to fight and neutralize any potentially disease-causing organism or moiety. For chronic disorders, preventive measures mediated through immune system modulation have been tried with little success yet the optimism for developing strategies of modulating the immune system is growing day by day as new techniques and animal models are being developed. Given the high prevalence of glaucoma and the ability of glaucoma experts to identify high-risk individuals, preventive regimens, and vaccine-like-substances can be developed to bring down the incidence. In this paper, we will discuss some preliminary efforts of vaccine development in glaucoma. We will also deliberate on the technical difficulties in developing effective vaccines for this disorder. In addition, we will try to identify measures with potential to transform the consistent toil of researchers in this field into an efficacious endeavor. We will attempt to recognize certain plausible methodologies that are likely to take the science of vaccine development for glaucoma (and other neurodegenerative disorders) somewhat nearer to the optimistic frontiers.