Multiple sclerosis and the MAPK signaling pathway: a microarray-based study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mirza Ali Mofazzal Jahromi 1
Amirreza Dehghan 2
Abazar Roustazadeh 3
1 Research Center for Noncommunicable Diseases, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran Department of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, School of Medicine, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran
2 Student Research Committee, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran
3 Research Center for Noncommunicable Diseases, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran Department of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, School of Medicine, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, School of Medicine, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran
10.22034/pjms.2025.2056240.1194
Abstract
Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. The aim of the current study was to search microarray libraries and perform functional analysis on extracted genes to predict their role in the pathogenesis of MS.
Materials and methods: The data in the GSE21942 dataset were first analyzed by GEO2R and then by R software version 4.2.0. Normalization of data and extraction of genes with significant expression differences (DEGs) were performed and performance analysis was performed by Enrichr and DAVID 6.8.
Results: 300 genes in the MS group had increased expression with Log2FC>1 and 205 genes had decreased expression with Log2FC<-1. The B cell receptor signaling pathway and the MAPK kinase signaling pathway were the most important pathways extracted.
Conclusion: The extracted pathways for the altered genes are related to the MAPK kinase signaling pathway, which may regulate a wide range of cellular processes including proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and stress responses in MS. Therefore, the indicated pathways could potentially be used as targets for MS therapy.
Keywords
Multiple Sclerosis
Functional enrichment analysis
Microarray
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