Expression of TH1 and TH17 cytokines and transcription factors in multiple sclerosis patients: Does baseline T-Bet mRNA predict the response to interferon-beta treatment?

Drulovic, Jelena; Savic, Emina; Pekmezovic, Tatjana; Mesaros, Sarlota; Stojsavljevic, Nebojsa; Dujmovic-Basuroski, Irena; Kostic, Jelena; Vasic, Vladimir; Stojkovic, Marija Mostarica; Popadic, Dusan

doi:10.1016/j.jneuroim.2009.07.010

« Previous Next »Journal of Neuroimmunology
Volume 215, Issue 1 , Pages 90-95, 30 October 2009

Expression of T_H1 and T_H17 cytokines and transcription factors in multiple sclerosis patients: Does baseline T-Bet mRNA predict the response to interferon-beta treatment?

Jelena Drulovic
- Institute of Neurology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 6, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
- Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +381 11 2685 662.
Emina Savic
- Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 1, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Tatjana Pekmezovic
- Institute of Neurology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 6, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Sarlota Mesaros
- Institute of Neurology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 6, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Nebojsa Stojsavljevic
- Institute of Neurology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 6, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Irena Dujmovic-Basuroski
- Institute of Neurology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 6, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Jelena Kostic
- Institute of Neurology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 6, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Vladimir Vasic
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, Kamenicka 6, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Marija Mostarica Stojkovic
- Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 1, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Dusan Popadic
- Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 1, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Received 26 March 2009; received in revised form 15 July 2009; accepted 21 July 2009. published online 20 August 2009.

Abstract

We studied the effect of one-year interferon (IFN)-beta treatment on the in vivo mRNA expression of IFN-γ, interleukin (IL)-17, T-bet and RoR-γt, on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 36 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. In the total MS group, IFN-beta induced decrease in mRNA levels of IFN-γ and T-bet (p<0.0001), while the levels of IL-17 and RoR-γt remained similar. In both responders and non-responders, IFN-beta induced significant decrease of IFN-γ (p<0.0001 and p=0.011, respectively), while decrease in T-bet was detected only in responders (p<0.0001). Higher pre-treatment T-bet allowed prediction of the clinical response in the first year (β=0.601, p=0.036). Our preliminary findings suggest that T-bet expression might be a potential prognostic marker of treatment response to IFN-beta in MS.