No differential gene expression for CD4+ T cells of MS patients and healthy controls.

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis-associated genetic variants indicate that the adaptive immune system plays an important role in the risk of developing multiple sclerosis. It is currently not well understood how these multiple sclerosis-associated genetic variants contribute to multiple sclerosis risk. CD4þ T cells are suggested to be involved in multiple sclerosis disease processes. Objective: We aim to identify CD4þ T cell differential gene expression between multiple sclerosis patients and healthy controls in order to understand better the role of these cells in multiple sclerosis. Methods: We applied RNA sequencing on CD4þ T cells from multiple sclerosis patients and healthy controls. Results: We did not identify significantly differentially expressed genes in CD4þ T cells from multiple sclerosis patients. Furthermore, pathway analyses did not identify enrichment for specific pathways in multiple sclerosis. When we investigated genes near multiple sclerosis-associated genetic variants, we did not observe significant enrichment of differentially expressed genes. Conclusion: We conclude that CD4þ T cells from multiple sclerosis patients do not show significant differential gene expression. Therefore, gene expression studies of all circulating CD4þ T cells may not result in viable biomarkers. Gene expression studies of more specific subsets of CD4þ T cells remain justified to understand better which CD4þ T cell subsets contribute to multiple sclerosis pathology.