Autoimmunity against neurofilament protein and its possible association with HLA-DRB1*1502 allele in glaucoma

Glaucoma is understood as a neurodegenerative disease and intraocular pressure has been regarded as the major risk factors for the optic nerve damages. However, recent studies suggested that several risk factors including autoimmunity are also shown to play important roles in glaucoma. To identify the retinal antigen in glaucoma, we used the serological analysis of recombinant cDNA expression libraries (SEREX) approach and quantified IgG antibodies directed against the identified antigens in an ELISA. We identified neurofilament protein and the prevalence of anti-bovine neurofilament light subunit (NF-L) autoantibodies in glaucomatous patients was significantly higher than in healthy controls and patients with other uveitic and optic nerve diseases (P < 0.05). In addition, our immunogenetic analysis showed a possible association between HLA-DRB1*1502 allele and the patients positive for anti-NF-L autoantibodies. It suggests that the HLA class II-linked gene may be involved in development of autoimmunity in patients with glaucoma.