A Minimally-invasive Blood-derived Biomarker of Oligodendrocyte Cell-loss in Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Minimally invasive biomarkers of MS are required for disease diagnosis and treatment. Differentially methylated circulating-free DNA (cfDNA) is a useful biomarker for disease diagnosis and prognosis, and may offer to be a viable approach for understanding MS. Here, methylation-specific primers and quantitative real-time PCR were used to study methylation patterns of the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) gene, which is expressed primarily in myelin-producing oligodendrocytes (ODCs). MOG-DNA was demethylated in O4(+) ODCs in mice and in DNA from human oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) when compared with other cell types. In the cuprizonefed mouse model of demyelination, ODC derived demethylated MOG cfDNA was increased in serum and was associated with tissue-wide demyelination, demonstrating the utility of demethylated MOG cfDNA as a biomarker of ODC death. Collected sera from patients with active (symptomatic) relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) demonstrated a higher signature of demethylated MOG cfDNA when compared with patients with inactive disease and healthy controls. Taken together, these results offer a minimally invasive approach to measuring ODC death in the blood of MS patients that may be used to monitor disease progression. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.