Differences in the Differential Expression of MicroRNAs Between Patients with Familial Multiple Sclerosis and Those with Sporadic Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a heterogeneous disease with clinical and immunological features. Most MS cases occur sporadically, but a considerable proportion of patients have a family history of MS. The etiology and pathophysiology of MS remain unclear. Recent epidemiological and gene expression studies have indicated that dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) may play a role in MS pathogenesis. This study aimed to evaluate the differential expression of miRNAs in sporadic MS (sMS) and familial MS Materials and Methods: This cross-section, single-center study was conducted in 20 FMS and 10 sMS patients and 8 healthy controls. The patients were in the remission. In total, 2,549 miRNA genes were screened in the blood mononuclear cells from the whole blood samples of MS patients depending on miRBase 21. Differential expression of miRNAs in MS patients was identified compared with the control group, and miRNAs with a fold change >= 2 were validated using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Differentially expressed miRNAs were then compared between FMS and sMS patients. Results: Initial findings showed that miR-5100 and hsa-miR-16-2-3p were increased and miR-432-3p was decreased in FMS compared with sMS, whereas miR-548-aa, hsa-miR-142-3p, and miR-451-b were increased in both sMS and FMS, but miR-548-v was increased only in sMS. Some miRNAs showed the same expression patterns in both groups. Conclusion: Differential expression of certain miRNAs may be a useful biomarker in the diagnosis of MS. This study showed that miRNAs may discriminate between FMS and sMS cases and MS subtypes, as indicated in earlier studies.