WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF IL12B+1188 SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM ON IL-12 SERUM LEVEL of MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS IRAQI PATIENTS?

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that results from interaction between genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors, and affects especially young adults. Serum level and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of Interleukin-12 (IL-12) were determined in 68 relapsing-remitting MS Iraqi patients and 20 healthy individuals, matched patients for ethnicity, age and gender. The patients were distributed into IFN? pre- and post-medicated patients, in addition, extended disability status scale (EDSS) was also applied as a parameter for distribution. The results indicated that there were significant differences in serum levels of IL-12 among the three investigated groups; pre- and post-medicated patients and controls (35.9 ± 1.6 vs. 29.5 ± 2.4 vs. 22.7 ± 2.9 pg/ml, respectively). However, there was no significant effect of EDSS on the level of IL-12 in pre- and post-medicated patients. IL12B gene SNP at position +1188 was presented with three genotypes (AA, AC and CC), which showed a significant difference between the observed and expected genotype frequencies (p ? 0.01) in patients, while a good agreement with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was observed in controls. However, there was no significant variation between patients and controls in the distribution of IL12B+1188 allele and genotype frequencies; although CC genotype was observed with a frequency of 17.9% in MS patients, while none of the controls possessed this genotype, and the odds ratio of such difference was 9.23. A significant impact of IL12B+1188 SNP on IL-12 serum level was recorded in MS patients carrying CC and AC genotypes (27.1 ± 3.1 vs. 35.9 ± 2.4 pg/ml, respectively), while no such impact was observed in controls.