Abbas Nikravesh
University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Title: Genetic background influences immunity-related genes in two Iranian ethnical multiple sclerosis groups
Biography
Biography: Abbas Nikravesh
Abstract
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) remains a poorly-understood autoimmune disease in the Central Nervous System (CNS) with unknown etiology and pathogenesis. Iranian population consisted of different ethnical groups with a specific history and genetic background having different prevalence of MS and responses to drugs. So, to find the role of genetic background on the expression of immunity-related genes, we are trying to evaluate the expression of STAT3, lnc-DC and THRIL in MS patients and healthy controls of two different ethnicities including Sistani population in the south-east and Kurmanj population in the northeast of Iran. To assess the effect of ethnicity on the expression levels of the immunity-related genes, blood samples were obtained from two different cohorts including Sistani and Kurmanj MS patients and their relevant controls. The expressions of the selected genes were assessed by real time PCR method. Surprisingly, in stratification for ethnicity, our results showed that although the expression level of THRIL significantly increased in Kurmanj MS patients (P=0.03), this lncRNA down regulated in Sistani patients (P=0.028) in comparison with their relative healthy controls. Moreover, lnc-DC did not show any significantly different expression in both Kurmanj (P=0.33) and Sistani patients (P=0.54). In conclusion, our results showed that besides the role of lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of MS through different mechanism, to be more successful in effective MS therapies based on personalized medicine, genetic background is an important factor which must to be considered.