Anti-inflammatory genes associated with multiple sclerosis: A gene expression study

• We show expression of anti-inflammatory genes in MS blood.
• These loci are genetically associated with MS.
• BACH2, PTGER4 and ZFP36L1 are down-regulated in MS.
• RGS1 is not altered in MS.
• No clinical correlation is related to gene expression.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system caused by a complex interaction between multiple genes and environmental factors.HLA region is the strongest susceptibility locus, but recent huge genome-wide association studies identified new susceptibility genes. Among these, BACH2, PTGER4, RGS1 and ZFP36L1 were highlighted. Here, a gene expression analysis revealed that three of them, namely BACH2, PTGER4 and ZFP36L1, are down-regulated in MS patients' blood cells compared to healthy subjects. Interestingly, all these genes are involved in the immune system regulation with predominant anti-inflammatory role and their reduction could predispose to MS development.