Evaluating of miR-155 expression and its relation with frequency of Th17 lymphocytes and IL-17, IL-21, and IL-6 levels in Multiple sclerosis patients compared to healthy controls

Abstract

MS (multiple sclerosis) is the most common autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, which was first described in 1866 by Charcot and Vulpain. Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, which is associated with inflammatory infiltrates, progressive demyelination of axons, and finally axonal loss. According to the explanations given about miRNAs and especially miR-155, in this study, we investigated the expression level and role of this molecule as well as its relationship with the frequency of Th17 lymphocytes and the level of IL-17, IL-21, and IL-6 cytokines. We examined the secretion in patients with MS compared to healthy individuals.

Materials and methods:

This study was done in a descriptive-analytical way. Written and informed consent was obtained from 40 patients with MS referred to Razi Medical Center in Tabriz and 40 healthy individuals who are our study populations in this research. , Then after taking blood from people, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated using Ficoll and density gradient centrifugation and the abundance of Th17 cells and gene expression were measured using flow cytometry technique. Then, data distribution was checked using prism software and Test-T test was used for normal distribution and Whitney-Mann test was used for data with non-normal distribution.

Results: The results of the study showed that the level of expression and secretion of cytokines IL-6, IL-17 and IL-21 increased significantly in patients compared to healthy people. Also, miR-155 gene expression is increased in patients. The results of the relationship between the expression of miR-155 and Th17-related cytokines also showed that this relationship between miR-155 and the abundance of Th17 cells and related cytokines is directly significant.