Identification of molecular biomarkers for multiple sclerosis.
Multiple sclerosis is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system with a presumed autoimmune etiology. Previous microarray analyses identified conserved gene expression signatures in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with autoimmune diseases. We used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis to identify a minimum number of genes of which transcript levels discriminated multiple sclerosis patients from patients with other chronic diseases and from controls. We used a computer program to search quantitative transcript levels to identify optimum ratios that distinguished among the different categories. A combination of a 4-ratio equation using expression levels of five genes segregated the multiple sclerosis cohort (n=55) from the control cohort (n=49) with a sensitivity of 91% and specificity of 98%. When autoimmune and other chronic disease groups were included (n=78), this discriminator still performed with a sensitivity of 79% and a specificity of 87%. This approach may have diagnostic utility not only for multiple sclerosis but also for other clinically complex autoimmune diseases.
Fossey
Sallyanne C
SC
Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashvill, Tennessee, USA.
Vnencak-Jones
Cindy L
CL
Olsen
Nancy J
NJ
Sriram
Subramaniam
S
Garrison
Gladys
G
Deng
Xenquing
X
Crooke
Philip S
PS
Aune
Thomas M
TM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D005820:Genetic Testing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012984:Software; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*
D015415:Biomarkers; D012333:RNA, Messenger