Immunological patterns identifying disease course and evolution in multiple sclerosis patients

Abstract: Reliable, and easy to measure, immunological markers able to denote disease characteristics in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are still lacking. We applied a multivariate statistical analysis on results obtained by measuring–by real-time RT-PCR–mRNA levels of 25 immunological relevant molecules in PBMCs from 198 MS patients. The combined measurement of mRNA levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, TGF-β, CCL20 and CCR3 was able to distinguish MS patients from healthy individuals. CXCR5, CCL5, and CCR3 combined mRNA levels identify primary progressive MS patients while TNF-α, IL-10, CXCL10 and CCR3 differentiate relapsing MS patients. Our results indicate that multi-parametric analysis of mRNA levels of immunological relevant molecules in PBMCs may represent a successful strategy for the identification of putative peripheral markers of disease state and disease activity in MS patients. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]