Tim-3 rs10515746 (A/C) and rs10053538 (C/A) gene polymorphisms and risk of multiple sclerosis

Background: multiple sclerosis (ms) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (cns) caused by autoreactive t cells against myelin antigens. t-cell immunoglobulin mucin -3 (tim-3) is a negative regulator glycoprotein expressed by a range of immune cells,including,th1 cells,activated cd8+ t cells and in a lower level on th17 cells. a defect in tim-3 regulation has been shown in multiple sclerosis patients. in humans,several single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) have been identified in the tim-3 gene and are associated with inflammatory diseases. the aim of this study was to analyze the association between tim-3 -574a>c and -1516 c>a snps in the promoter region,and susceptibility to ms. methods: dna samples from 102 patients and 102 healthy controls were genotyped using rflp-pcr method. results: in this case-control study,analysis of the alleles and genotypes revealed a significant higher frequency of c/c and lower frequency of a/c genotypes for -574 locus of tim-3 gene in ms patients (p=0.0002). we also found that c/c genotype for locus of -1516 increased in ms patients,while a/c genotype decreased (p=0.012). allele c of 574c/c and -1516 c>a snps were also more frequent in ms patients (p=0.036 and 0.0027 respectively). conclusion: -574 a>c and -1516 c>a snps in the promoter region of tim3 gene may affect the disease susceptibility. © 2016,iranian journal of public health. all rights reserved.