Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) where both environmental and genetic risk factors play a role. Among the environmental risk factors, EBV and HSV infections have been suggested as strong candidates contributing to MS pathology/progression. Viral recognition and control is largely tasked to the NK cells via TLR recognition and various cytotoxic and immunoregulatory functions. The present work aimed to characterize NK cells isolated from MS patients for genetic polymorphisms in the gene encoding for TLR3, as TLR3 in NK cells is important in herpesvirus recognition.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) where both environmental and genetic risk factors play a role. Among the environmental risk factors, EBV and HSV infections have been suggested as strong candidates contributing to MS pathology/progression. Viral recognition and control is largely tasked to the NK cells via TLR recognition and various cytotoxic and immunoregulatory functions. The present work aimed to characterize NK cells isolated from MS patients for genetic polymorphisms in the gene encoding for TLR3, as TLR3 in NK cells is important in herpesvirus recognition.