Plasma biomarkers discriminate clinical forms of multiple sclerosis

• Published in: PloS one 2015-06, Vol.10 (6), p.e0128952-e0128952
• Main Authors: Tejera-Alhambra, Marta, Casrouge, Armanda, de Andrés, Clara, Seyfferth, Ansgar, Ramos-Medina, Rocío, Alonso, Bárbara, Vega, Janet, Fernández-Paredes, Lidia, Albert, Matthew L, Sánchez-Ramón, Silvia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Angiogenesis; Bioindicators; Biological markers; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Blood & organ donations; Carbon tetrachloride; Care and treatment; Case-Control Studies; CCL4 protein; Cell adhesion & migration; Chemokine CCL11 - blood; Chemokine CCL4 - blood; Chemokines; Cohort Studies; Cytokines; Diagnosis; Diagnosis, Differential; Eotaxin; Epidermal Growth Factor - blood; Female; Genetic aspects; Growth factors; Hepatocyte Growth Factor - blood; Histology; Humans; Immunology; Interferon; Life Sciences; Lymphocytes; Middle Aged; Multiple sclerosis; Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive - blood; Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive - diagnosis; Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting - blood; Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting - diagnosis; Neurological complications; Neurology; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Pathogenesis; Patients; Physiological aspects; Predictive Value of Tests; Public health; Regression analysis; ROC Curve; Therapeutic applications; Therapeutic targets; Trauma
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128952

Multiple sclerosis, the most common cause of neurological disability in young population after trauma, represents a significant public health burden. Current challenges associated with management of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients stem from the lack of biomarkers that might enable stratification of the different clinical forms of MS and thus prompt treatment for those patients with progressive MS, for whom there is currently no therapy available. In the present work we analyzed a set of thirty different plasma cytokines, chemokines and growth factors present in circulation of 129 MS patients with different clinical forms (relapsing remitting, secondary progressive and primary progressive MS) and 53 healthy controls, across two independent cohorts. The set of plasma analytes was quantified with Luminex xMAP technology and their predictive power regarding clinical outcome was evaluated both individually using ROC curves and in combination using logistic regression analysis. Our results from two independent cohorts of MS patients demonstrate that the divergent clinical and histology-based MS forms are associated with distinct profiles of circulating plasma protein biomarkers, with distinct signatures being composed of chemokines and growth/angiogenic factors. With this work, we propose that an evaluation of a set of 4 circulating biomarkers (HGF, Eotaxin/CCL11, EGF and MIP-1β/CCL4) in MS patients might serve as an effective tool in the diagnosis and more personalized therapeutic targeting of MS patients.