AccScience Publishing / ITPS / Volume 8 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.36922/itps.4407
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

BDNF-AS as a promising downregulated biomarker for multiple sclerosis pathogenesis and diagnosis

Ahmed Kamal1,2* ,  Menha Swellam3 ,  Nevin M. Shalaby4 ,  Marwa K. Darwish1 ,  Eslam M. El-Nahrery1
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1 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Suez University, PO Box 43518 Suez, Egypt
2 Biotechnology Program, Basic and Applied Science Institute-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria, PO Box 21934, Egypt
3 Department of Biochemistry, Biotechnology Research Institute, High Throughput Molecular and Genetic Laboratory, Central Laboratories Network and the Centers of Excellence, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, Egypt
4 Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
INNOSC Theranostics and Pharmacological Sciences 2025, 8(1), 91–100; https://doi.org/10.36922/itps.4407
Submitted: 1 August 2024 | Revised: 6 January 2025 | Accepted: 21 January 2025 | Published: 21 February 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a prevalent neurological disorder affecting the central nervous system, with a global incidence exceeding 2.5 million cases. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor-antisense (BDNF-AS), a long non-coding RNA, has been identified as a factor that negatively influences the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a neurotrophin protein that exhibits heightened expression within actively demyelinating lesions in MS. This study aims to assess the relative expression of BDNF-AS across all MS subtypes, evaluate its diagnostic accuracy, and explore correlations between BDNF-AS expression and disease parameters. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was employed to quantify the expression levels of BDNF-AS in the serum samples of 54 individuals diagnosed with various types of MS and 20 healthy controls. Statistical analyses were performed to assess the correlation and diagnostic efficacy of BDNF-AS expression levels. The expression of BDNF-AS was markedly reduced in individuals with MS compared to the control group (P < 0.01). Notably, the highest expression levels were observed in patients diagnosed with secondary progressive MS. Using a defined cutoff value of 0.31, and the findings suggest that BDNF-AS expression in serum has notable potential as a specific and sensitive diagnostic marker for MS. In conclusion, this study provides a comprehensive evaluation of BDNF-AS across all MS subtypes, highlighting its diagnostic accuracy and the association between elevated BDNF-AS expression and disease progression in secondary progressive MS. Further research is needed to validate these results.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Multiple sclerosis
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor-antisense
Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis
Primary progressive multiple sclerosis
Gene expression
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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INNOSC Theranostics and Pharmacological Sciences, Electronic ISSN: 2705-0823 Print ISSN: 2705-0734, Published by AccScience Publishing
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