Reassessment of blood gene expression markers for the prognosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

ABSTRACT: Despite considerable advances in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, current drugs are only partially effective. Most patients show reduced disease activity with therapy, but still experience relapses, increasing disability, and new brain lesions. Since there are no reliable clinical or biological markers of disease progression, long-term prognosis is difficult to predict for individual patients. We identified 18 studies that suggested genes expressed in blood as predictive biomarkers. We validated the prognostic value of those genes with three different microarray data sets comprising 148 patients in total. Using these data, we tested whether the genes were significantly differentially expressed between patients with good and poor courses of the disease. Poor progression was defined by r

SUBMITTER: Hecker M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3246503 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature