title: Investigation of a neuronal nitric oxide synthase gene (NOS1) polymorphism in a multiple sclerosis population.
abstract: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disease characterized by demyelination associated with infiltrating white blood cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Nitric oxide synthases (NOS) are a family of enzymes that control the production of nitric oxide. It is possible that neuronal NOS could be involved in MS pathophysiology and hence the nNOS gene is a potential candidate for involvement in disease susceptibility. The aim of this study was to determine whether allelic variation at the nNOS gene locus is associated with MS in an Australian cohort. DNA samples obtained from a Caucasian Australian population affected with MS and an unaffected control population, matched for gender, age and ethnicity, were genotyped for a microsatellite polymorphism in the promoter region of the nNOS gene. Allele frequencies were compared using chi-squared based statistical analyses with significance tested by Monte Carlo simulation. Allelic analysis of MS cases and controls produced a chi-squared value of 5.63 with simulated P = 0.96 (OR(max) = 1.41, 95% CI: 0.926-2.15). Similarly, a Mann-Whitney U analysis gave a non-significant P-value of 0.377 for allele distribution. No differences in allele frequencies were observed for gender or clinical course subtype (P > 0.05). Statistical analysis indicated that there is no association of this nNOS variant and MS and hence the gene does not appear to play a genetically significant role in disease susceptibility.
authors.affiliation: Genomics Research Centre, School of Health Science, Griffith University Gold Coast, Southport, Queensland, 4215 Australia.
authors.forename: Lotti
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tajouri
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Micky
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ovcaric
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Curtain
authors.forename: Rod
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lea
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Csurhes
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Pender
authors.forename: Lyn R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Griffiths
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000235:genetics*; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000235:genetics*; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; C496320:NOS1 protein, human; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I