A case control study on genetic susceptibility in Multiple Sclerosis

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is protype of inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system .The etiology of MS remains unclear, but according to current data the disease develops in genetically susceptible individuals and may require additional environmental triggers. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles (DRB1*1501, DQA1*0102, DQB1*0602) are the strongest genetic effects identified in MS. Methods: In this study, the role of these alleles was investigated in 183 Iranian multiple sclerosis patients and compared with 100 healthy individuals. HLA typing for DRB1*1501, DQA1*0102, DQB1*0602 was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) method. Results: The results show that, HLA DR B1*1501 was significantly more frequent among MS patients (46% vs. 20%, PV=0.0006) but DQA1*0102 haplotype was negatively associated with MS (30% vs. 50%, PV=0.0049) and no significant association was found with DQB1*0602 and MS patients in comparison with control groups (24% and 30%, PV=0.43). No significant correlation was observed among these alleles with sex, type of disease; initial symptoms, expanded disability status scale (EDSS), as well as age of onset and familial MS. Conclusion: This study indicates the positive association of the HLA DRB1*1501 haplotype neither with MS, nor with demographic data and clinical symptoms of MS patients which is in line with other studies too.