Susceptibility genes and pharmacogenetics in ocular inflammatory disorders.

Ocular inflammatory disorders encompass uveitis, scleritis, keratitis, and other ocular diseases where inflammation may play a role. Although age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is clinically characterized by degenerative changes in the macula, accumulating evidence suggests that inflammation plays an important role in its pathogenesis. Pharmacogenetics is the study of the influence of genetic variation and its effects on drug efficacy or toxicity. There are no pharmacogenetic studies in uveitis and very few in AMD therapies. In this review, the authors describe the susceptibility genes related to uveitis and AMD and the important advances in pharmacogenetic research in relation to AMD and uveitis therapy. They propose polygenic and composite models of treatment responses to fulfill individualized drug therapy in intraocular inflammatory disorders.