Review
Nature Reviews Genetics 9, 516-526 (July 2008) | doi:10.1038/nrg2395
The genetics of multiple sclerosis: SNPs to pathways to pathogenesis
Jorge R. Oksenberg1, Sergio E. Baranzini1, Stephen Sawcer2 & Stephen L. Hauser1 About the authors
Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease and a common cause of neurological disability in young adults. The modest heritability of MS reflects complex genetic effects and multifaceted gene–environment interactions. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region is the strongest susceptibility locus for MS, but a genome-wide association study recently identified new susceptibility genes. Progress in high-throughput genotyping and sequencing technologies and a better understanding of the structural organization of the human genome, together with powerful brain-imaging techniques that refine the phenotype, suggest that the tools could finally exist to identify the full set of genes influencing the pathogenesis of MS.
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Author affiliations
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, California 94143–0435, USA.
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK.
Correspondence to: Jorge R. Oksenberg1 Email: jorge.oksenberg@ucsf.edu
Correspondence to: Stephen L. Hauser1 Email: hausers@neurology.ucsf.edu
Published online 10 June 2008
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