Abstract
Identification of biomarkers contributing to disease diagnosis, classification or prognosis could be of considerable utility. For example, primary methods to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS) include magnetic resonance imaging and detection of immunological abnormalities in cerebrospinal fluid. We determined whether gene-expression differences in blood discriminated MS subjects from comparator groups, and identified panels of ratios that performed with varying degrees of accuracy depending upon complexity of comparator groups. High levels of overall accuracy were achieved by comparing MS with homogeneous comparator groups. Overall accuracy was compromised when MS was compared with a heterogeneous comparator group. Results, validated in independent cohorts, indicate that gene-expression differences in blood accurately exclude or include a diagnosis of MS and suggest that these approaches may provide clinically useful prediction of MS.
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This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health Grant AI053984.
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TMA and NJO are co-owners of ArthroChip.
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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on Genes and Immunity website
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Tossberg, J., Crooke, P., Henderson, M. et al. Gene-expression signatures: biomarkers toward diagnosing multiple sclerosis. Genes Immun 13, 146–154 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/gene.2011.66
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/gene.2011.66
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