A gene expression study denies the ability of 25 candidate biomarkers to predict the interferon-beta treatment response in multiple sclerosis patients

- We retrospectively selected 10 IFN-beta responders and 10 non-responders MS patients.
- Selection was based on stringent clinical criteria, avoiding intermediate phenotypes.
- We analyzed the baseline expression level of 25 IFN-regulated genes in whole blood.
- In the literature they are proposed as biomarkers of IFN-beta treatment response.
- We cannot confirm the predictive value of these candidate biomarkers.

We studied the baseline expression level of 25 interferon-regulated genes (MxA, GPR3, IL17RC, ISG15, TRAIL, OASL, IFIT1, IFIT2, RSAD2, OAS3, IFI44L, TRIM22, IL10, CXCL10, STAT1, OAS1, OAS2, IFNAR1, IFNAR2, IFNβ, ISG20, IFI6, PKR, IRF7, USP18), recurrently proposed in the literature as predictive biomarkers of interferon-beta treatment response, in whole blood of 10 “responders” and 10 “non-responders” multiple sclerosis relapsing-remitting patients, retrospectively selected on the basis of stringent clinical criteria after a five years follow-up. However, we cannot confirm the predictive value of these candidate biomarkers.