Mona AF Nada¹, Dalia A Labib²

Departments of Neurology¹, Clinical Pathology², Cairo University; Egypt

Background: Tumor necrosis factor α, a proinflammatory cytokine, was found to play an important role with the clinical activity of relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis and the development of progression. Dysregulation in the expression of tumor necrosis factor gene had been suggested in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. Objective: Our aim was to investigate the relation between tumor necrosis factor α −376 polymorphism with disease susceptibility and clinical course of multiple sclerosis in Egyptian patients. Methods: Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism were carried out on 36 primary progressive multiple sclerosis patients, 36 age and sex-matched remitting relapsing multiple sclerosis patients (Diagnosed according to McDonald Diagnostic criteria) and 30 age and sex-matched healthy controls. Results: The GG genotype and the guanine allele (G) were detected significantly more often in the primary progressive multiple sclerosis group as compared with the healthy control group (p = 0.002; p = 0.004). Conclusion: The “G” allele in the examined position in tumor necrosis factor alpha might have a role as regards susceptibility in MS. The “G” allele may be one of the factors responsible for progression in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. (Egypt J Neurol Psychiat Neurosurg.  2010; 47(2): 311-316)

Key Words: Multiple sclerosis (MS); Primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS); Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) gene polymorphism.