Interleukins 17 and 10 in a sample of Egyptian relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis patients.

BACKGROUND: Cytokines are major contributors in the immune disruption in multiple sclerosis (MS). OBJECTIVE: Evaluating the proinflammatory (IL-17A) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines in relapsing-remitting (RR) MS patients at time of relapse and during remission. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: A case-control study including 30 RRMS patients and 15 controls. Patients were recruited from the Kasr Al-Ainy MS research unit (KAMSU), Cairo University, Egypt. Levels of IL-17A and IL-10 were assessed in patients' sera, during relapse and 30days after IV methylprednisolone, and in control subjects using enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). RESULTS: IL-17 was higher in patients during relapse and remission phases when compared with controls (P=0.001), whereas, IL-10 was higher in patients during remission but normal during relapse (P=0.01; 0.86 respectively). IL-17 increased during relapses (P=0.001) while IL-10 increased during remissions (P=0.028). No significant correlations were found between both interleukins and age at onset; disease duration, number of relapses; or EDSS. CONCLUSION: RRMS patients can have a regulatory imbalance between both pro-and antiinflammatory cytokines, which could be a target for treatment strategies rather than focusing on a single cytokine.