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Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology

Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology
Open Access

ISSN: 2155-9899

+44 1223 790975

Abstract

Molecular Biomarkers in Multiple Sclerosis

Brigitte Katrin Paap, Michael Hecker, Dirk Koczan and Uwe Klaus Zettl

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic immune-modulated disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) affecting mainly young adults. Due to the complexity and heterogenic etiology of this disease diagnosis, treatment, and estimations concerning the future course of the disease for the individual patient are challenging. To encounter the variability in phenotype, disease progression and response to treatments, various new drugs are in development to complement existing treatment options. Since years intensive efforts are directed to identify biomarkers that are associated with various aspects of MS on different levels of the organizational hierarchy of the human body (e.g. DNA, RNA, proteins, cells).
We researched the last ten years of literature to identify those proposed candidates that had been repeatedly published as being associated with MS etiology, clinical manifestation, disease course, and treatment response. Here, we present a categorized overview over molecular biomarkers in MS.
However, despite of the large sum of studies and the long list of candidate markers, today only very few biomarkers are of clinical value. This is mostly due to lack of comparability and statistical power in most studies. However, there are recent advances in the field of applicable molecular biomarkers in MS: For example measurement of anti-AQP4 levels allows differentiation between neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and MS.

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