Negar Modirzade-Bami, Arezou Sayad, Nahid Beladi Moghadam, Alireza Sattari, Shahram, Arsang-Jang, Seyyed Mojtaba Mohaddes-Ardabili, Abolfazl Movafagh
"Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most inflammatory, demyelinating, neurodegenerative and disabling disorder of central nervous system with a strong genetic component. In this investigation we examined the variations of IL7Rα gene promoter among Iranian MS patients. In this case-control study, one hundred Iranian RR-MS patients and eighty ethnically, sex and age matched healthy controls with no personal or family history of autoimmune diseases were investigated for variations in the IL7Rα gene promoter based on PCR and sequencing strategy , in this Chi square was applied to analyze. The value of p <0.05 was considered significantly. A significant positive association between T allele of rs11567685 (P: 0.04; OR: 2.426; 95%CI: 1.581-3.722) and T/C genotype (P: 0.0001; OR: 0.407; 95%CI: 0.217-0.766) were demonstrated. C/C genotype of rs11567685 (P: 0.00003; OR: 0.273; 95%CI: 0.145-0.513) have negative association to MS. Also A allele rs11567686 (P: 0.01; OR: 0.545; 95%CI: 0.327-0.91) and G allele rs7718919 (P: 0.02; OR: 0.417; 95%CI: 0.119-0.921) show a negative association to MS. DNA sequencing of IL7Rα promoter demonstrated an association between three SNPs (rs11567686, rs11567685 and rs7718919) and MS disease. Further studies on large sample size are required to bring about more authentic results. In addition, more studies are required to define the effects of these variations on the IL7R protein in multiple sclerosis. Finally the functional effects of these SNPs need to further investigations."