Identification of common mutations on the NF-kB and its inhibitor gene promoters in patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Aims and background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most commonneurological disorders of the central nervous system which is mediated bythe autoimmune reactions against myelin sheets. NF-kB as the bestcharacterizedtranscription factors and its inhibitor (IKBs) are important forglial and neuronal cell function which regulate the expression of manygenes. Our hypothesis was aimed to address the potential associationbetween common mutation of NF-kB and IKB-a gene promoters and MS.Methods: We analyzed 150 sex and age matched MS patients along with150 healthy individuals using PCR-RFLP.Results: The data revealed no significant differences in frequency of the -94ins/del ATTG (which is associated with several common autoimmunediseases) in MS patients compared with the control group, but regardingIKB-a, the results indicated that two SNPs are significantly correlated withsusceptibility of MS disease.In conclusion, our study showed that the potential association is there,indeed, between IKB-a gene promoter and MS.

Keywords:

Multiple Sclerosis , NF-kB , Promoters , Common mutations