The association between PD-1 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to multiple sclerosis.

Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) is an immune checkpoint and has been reported to be associated with several autoimmune diseases. We aimed to investigate the association between human PD-1 gene (PDCD1) polymorphisms and multiple sclerosis (MS). This case-control study was conducted on 229 MS patients and 246 healthy controls. Genotyping of rs36084323 (PD-1.1 G/A), rs11568821 (PD-1.3 G/A) and rs2227981 (PD-1.5 C/T) polymorphisms was performed by PCR-RFLP technique. The frequency difference of PD-1.1 genotypes and alleles (-536 G/A) between patients and healthy controls was not significant. Regarding PD-1.3, the AA + AG genotype was found to be relatively higher in the control group. Concerning PD-1.5 (+7785 C/T), the frequency of T allele carriers (TT + CT) was relatively higher in MS patients, which was marginally insignificant (p = .07). PD-1 gene polymorphisms may be associated with MS; however, accurate conclusions require further studies with a larger number of samples.

The role of SOX family in cancer stem cell maintenance: With a focus on SOX2.

The role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in cancer incidence, drug resistance, and relapse after chemotherapy has been discussed and it has been confirmed that CSCs are extremely important and so, are suitable for therapeutic targeting. Sox families play an important role in carcinogenesis and dis-regulation of SOXs molecules has been observed in different types of cancers. The members of this family have been shown to play an important role in the maintenance of CSCs. In this article, we have tried to evaluate the role of different family members in CSCs maintenance, review various studies in this field and provide a perspective view on this issue. Also, due to the important role and many studies in the field of SOX2 molecule in CSCs, we try to have more focus on this molecule and examine the potential of these molecules for therapeutic targeting.