Th1Th17 CM Lymphocyte Subpopulation as a Predictive Biomarker of Disease Activity in Multiple Sclerosis Patients under Dimethyl Fumarate or Fingolimod Treatment

• Published in: Mediators of inflammation Vol. 2019; p. 8147803
• Main Authors: Quirant-Sánchez, Bibiana, Presas-Rodriguez, Silvia, Mansilla, María José, Teniente-Serra, Aina, Hervás-García, José V, Brieva, Luis, Moral-Torres, Ester, Cano, Antonio, Munteis, Elvira, Navarro-Barriuso, Juan, Martínez-Cáceres, Eva M, Ramo-Tello, Cristina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 2019
• Subjects: Adult; Biomarkers - metabolism; Dimethyl Fumarate - therapeutic use; Female; Fingolimod Hydrochloride - therapeutic use; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Multiple Sclerosis - drug therapy; Multiple Sclerosis - metabolism; T-Lymphocyte Subsets - metabolism; Th17 Cells - metabolism
• ISSN: 1466-1861

Peripheral blood biomarkers able to predict disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients have not been identified yet. Here, we analyzed the immune phenotype of T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood samples from 66 RRMS patients under DMF ( = 22) or fingolimod ( = 44) treatment, by flow cytometry. A correlation study between the percentage and absolute cell number of each lymphocyte subpopulation with the presence of relapses or new MRI lesions during 12-month follow-up was performed. Patients who had undergone relapses showed at baseline higher percentage of Th1 cells (relapsed: 11.60 ± 4.17% . nonrelapsed: 9.25 ± 3.17%, < 0.05) and Th1Th17 cells (relapsed: 15.65 ± 6.15% . nonrelapsed: 10.14 ± 4.05%, < 0.01) before initiating DMF or fingolimod treatment. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with Th1Th17 (CD4 CCR7 CD45RA CCR6 CXCR3 ) cells > 11.48% had a 50% relapse-free survival compared to patients with Th1Th17 cells < 11.48% whose relapse-free survival was 88% ( = 0.013, log-rank test). Additionally, a high percentage of Th1Th17 cells was also found in patients with MRI activity (MRI activity: 14.02 ± 5.87% . no MRI activity: 9.82 ± 4.06%, < 0.01). Our results suggest that the percentage of Th1Th17 lymphocytes at baseline is a predictive biomarker of activity during the first 12 months of treatment, regardless of the treatment.