Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology 1735-1502 17 6 2018 12 04 548 556 EN Vajiheh Gharzi Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Maziar Gangi Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Arezou Sayad Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mehrdokht Mazdeh Neurophysiology Research Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran Shahram Arsang-Jang Clinical Research Development Center (CRDU), Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran Mohammad Taheri Student Research Committee, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Urogenital Stem Cell Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2018 02 17 2018 05 15 Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system (CNS), in which axonal damage is a deteriorative factor. Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is described as a neuronal-survival gene, also capable of exerting pleiotropic effects on the immune cells. Here, we aimed to investigate expression levels of BDNF and its antisense RNA, BDNF-AS, in Iranian MS patients. Our case-control study was based on collecting 50 whole blood samples of relapsing-remitting MS patients and 50 healthy controls. Then, expression analysis of BDNF and BDNF-AS was performed by Real-time quantitative PCR. We found a strong and positive correlation between BDNF and BDNF-AS in MS patients. This is while no significant difference in BDNF and BDNF-AS expression levels was seen between MS patients and controls (p>0.05). A significant and strong positive correlation was found between the expression levels of BDNF-AS and BDNF (r=0.785, p<0.0001). Further, significant positive moderate correlations of BDNF and BDNF-AS with other lncRNAs (GSTT1-AS1 and IFNG-AS1) and genes (TNF and IFNG) were revealed (p<0.0001). Additionally, there was no correlation between the BDNF and BDNF-AS expressions and disease duration, age at onset, and Expanded Disability Status Scale of Kurtzke (EDSS) (p>0.05). BDNF and BDNF-AS expression levels revealed insignificant discrepancies in patients and controls. We found a strong and positive correlation between BDNF and BDNF-AS in MS patients, which is, based on previous studies, a quit novel finding and can be further discussed by future works to unravel its possible application in MS. We suggest evaluation of different leukocytes subsets separately along with large cohort studies comprising a higher number of individuals from different ages to unravel the effects of other possible aspects. https://ijaai.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijaai/article/view/1875 https://ijaai.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijaai/article/download/1875/1382