Expression and clinical significance of IL7R, NFATc2, and RNF213 in familial and sporadic multiple sclerosis
Abstract Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory and autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system characterized by myelin loss and axonal dysfunction. Increased production of inflammatory factors such as cytokines has been implicated in axon destruction in myelin-less areas. In the present study, we compared the expression level of IL7R, NFATc2, and RNF213 genes in the peripheral blood of 72 MS patients (37 familial MS, 35 sporadic MS) and 74 healthy controls (34 individuals with a family history of the disease, 40 healthy controls without a family history) via Real-time PCR. Results Our results showed that the expression level of IL7R was decreased in MS patients versus healthy controls. Also IL7R expression was significantly down-regulated in the sporadic group as compared to other groups. Additionally, there was an increased NFATc2 expression level in MS patients versus healthy controls. Increased expression of NFATc2 in sporadic and familial groups compared to the controls was also seen. Our results represented an increased expression level of RNF213 in the familial patients as compared to the control group. Diagnostic evaluation was performed by ROC curve analysis and area under the curve (AUC) calculation. The correlation of clinical parameters including onset age and EDSS with our gene expression levels were also assessed. Conclusions Overall, decreased expression level of IL7R and increased expression level of NFATc2 may be associated with the pathogenesis of MS disease. The RNF213 should be evaluated further for its potential as a candidate biomarker of inflammatory activity in MS in a larger cohort.