The relationship between serum TIM-3 and TIM-3 gene expression in a sample of Iraqi patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) caused by auto-reactive T cells against myelin antigens. T-cell immunoglobulin mucin -3 (TIM-3) is a negative regulator glycoprotein expressed by a range of immune cells. A defect in TIM-3 regulation has been shown in multiple sclerosis patients. This study was planned to investigate the correlation between serum TIM-3 and TIM-3 gene expression in a sample of Multiple Sclerosis Iraqi patients. Three ml of blood samples were collected from fifty Iraqi patients who have Multiple Sclerosis (men and women) with ages ranging between 20-57 years, and 50 healthy volunteers as a control group; 0.25ml of blood was put in Trizol tube for RNA extraction, subsequently to estimate TIM-3 gene expression by one step RT-qPCR, and 2.75 ml of blood placed into gel tube for determination TIM-3 serum level by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the Statistical analysis was done by using program of Statistical Analysis System (SAS). There was a significant increase (P ≤ 0.05) in TIM-3 gene expression for patients (5.30-fold) when compared with control (7.86-fold). Moreover, the result demonstrated a high significant elevated (P ≤ 0.01) in TIM-3 serum level of patients (0.398 pg/ml) as compared to control (3.17 pg/ml. Furthermore, the findings showed a strong positive association between TIM-3 serum level and TIM-3 mRNA expression with significant differences. The current study concluded that the TIM-3 gene expression and TIM-3 serum level were high in MS patients, and there was a direct positive relationship between TIM-3 gene expression and TIM-3 serum level. Keywords: MS, TIM-3, RT-qPCR.,ELISA