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The first genetic advance in multiple sclerosis research in three decades has opened new approaches to treating the neurological disorder, scientists said yesterday. Research has identified two genetic variants that each raises a person’s risk of developing MS by about 30 per cent, shedding new light on the origins of the autoimmune disease that could ultimately lead to better therapies. [emphasis added] The scientific publication in question (well, there are several of them, but this one will do) is “Risk Alleles for Multiple Sclerosis Identified by a Genomewide Study”, NEJM, July 29 2007. And the “risk-raising” in question is, needless to say, calculated in terms of odds ratios: A number of allelic variants had a significant association with multiple sclerosis. Of these, two SNPs in intron 1 of the IL2RA gene encoding the alpha chain of the interleukin-2 receptor (also called CD25, located at chromosome 10p15) are notable: rs12722489 (P=2.96x10-8; odds ratio, 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.16 to 1.36) and rs2104286 (P=2.16x10-7; odds ratio, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.26) (Figure 4).
Bull Schadenfreude
