Multiple Sclerosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Multiple Sclerosis, including details on diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, prognosis.

Ctla4 and multiple sclerosis in the Italian population.

Malferrari G, Stella A, Monferini E, Saltini G, Proverbio MC, Grimaldi LM, Rossi-Bernardi L, Biunno I

Centre for Bio-Molecular Interdisciplinary Studies and Industrial Applications, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.

CTLA4 protein is a receptor molecule that plays a critical role as a negative regulator of the immune response. Therefore, genetic variations in CTLA4 may confer susceptibility to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). In order to investigate the association of two CTLA4 polymorphisms (+49 A/G and -318 C/T) with multiple sclerosis, sporadic MS patients and healthy controls from Italy were genotyped through direct DNA sequencing. Considering single-loci variations, no differences in the allelic and genotypic frequencies between patients and controls were found. However, considering a putative interaction at the two loci, the T/G combination was more frequently observed in patients than in controls. This result suggests that this allelic combination of the CTLA4 polymorphisms may be involved in the susceptibility to MS in the Italian population.

Published 14 December 2004 in Exp Mol Pathol, 78(1): 55-7.
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